Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers
| Location | Montague Close, Southwark |
|---|---|
| Date of formation | 1956 |
| Company association | Scientific instrument-makers |
| Order of precedence | 84th |
| Master of company | Christopher Sawyer |
| Motto |
Sine Nobis Scientia Languet Latin for Science Languishes Without Us |
| Website | wcsim.co.uk |
The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company promotes the craft of scientific instrument-making, the exchange of ideas and information between members and guests, and science generally by offering scholarships to science students.
The organisation was originally formed in 1956 and the City granted it livery status in 1964. It ranks 84th in the order of precedence for the Livery Companies.
Its motto is Sine Nobis Scientia Languet, translated from Latin as Science Languishes Without Us.
The Company's livery hall, the Scientific Instrument Makers' Hall, is on Montague Close, by the southern end of London Bridge, in the borough of Southwark.
Who are its members?
The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers is a community made up mostly of scientists and engineers. Some work in companies. Some are academics. Some work in the National Measurement Institutes. Most are involved somehow in making or using scientific instruments. This could be any kind of scientific instrument: a measuring instrument, like a feeler gauge or an atomic clock, or an imaging instrument like a PET scanner. It might even be a piece of control engineering incorporating many instruments.
What makes the Company a community is partly a shared interest in scientific instruments and, more generally, in science and engineering. It is also partly a shared love of good company, of meeting for discussion over food and wine, and of bringing partners or guests to a grand banquet in distinguished surroundings.
But what makes the Company a community most of all is that the members give and receive help and support. Its younger members are Scholars and Apprentices, still studying, and those at the beginning of their careers, who can benefit from advice on their studies and career choices. Its older members are established in their chosen careers and have a wealth of knowledge and experience to pass on. Those in mid-career can offer support to the less experienced and gain support from the more experienced.
Those who are established in their careers and wish to become Liverymen are given a chance to give something back to the world of science and engineering by nurturing the next generation. At the same time, they can enjoy all the benefits of the community: co-operation with government bodies, social events, lectures, technical visits, and ancient traditions.
SIM Liverymen include in their ranks Engineers, both mechanical and electronic, Scientists from all disciplines: Nanotechnology, Nuclear and Medical Physics, Genetics, Astronomy - and two Nobel Prize winners.
Postgraduate awards
The Company awards scholarships of £2,000 to postgraduates from its partner universities and the prestigious SIM Beloe Fellowship to an outstanding post doctoral researcher. This award is worth £5000 per year for up to three years.
Apprentices
Young Engineer for Britain prize winners and Arkwright Scholars are invited to become SIM Company apprentices. Serving Liverymen also sponsor apprentices who have shown a strong interest in STEM subjects. Apprentices are usually at school or college and are about to embark on their A-Levels (or equivalent).
Each SIM apprentice is linked to an experienced, senior Liveryman - an Apprentice Master - who is there to support and mentor his or her apprentice during A-level years and right through to university graduation.
All SIM Liverymen, by definition, have to be senior people in the scientific instrument industry and this gives an apprentice unprecedented access to their experience. All SIM apprentices are eligible for a scholarship of £500 per year for each year of their undergraduate course for a maximum of four years. And, at the successful completion of their four-year apprenticeship, they will be invited to become a SIM Freeman and a Freeman of the City of London.
