Nicholas Tonks, who leads a research team at the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, USA has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for the discovery and characterisation of protein tyrosine phosphatases. Nick Tonks studied for his PhD with Philip Cohen from 1982-1985.

Nicholas is the first PhD student from the University of Dundee to be made a Fellow of the Royal Society since it became an independent University separate from St. Andrews in 1967. Nick Tonks was the first to isolate "protein tyrosine phosphatases". This achievement pioneered our understanding of the important roles of this large enzyme family which regulates many aspects of cellular behaviour, especially cell growth and immune responses. In particular he discovered PTP1B which is now known to play a key role in obesity and insulin signalling and is one of the hottest drug targets in the pharmaceutical industry.

Founded in 1660, The Royal Society is the world's oldest scientific academy at the forefront of enquiry and discovery. The Society is independent of government by virtue of its Royal Charters and throughout its history, has promoted excellence in science. The backbone of the Society is its Fellowship of the most eminent scientists of the day, elected by peer review for life and entitled to use FRS after their name