A message from the Master

Let me, as Master, give you a very warm welcome to the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers.  The Company distributes significant charitable funding each year in support of scientific and technical education, while also fostering mentoring and good fellowship amongst its members.  I am delighted that you are visiting our website.

For those who are already members of the Company, or are thinking of joining us, I hope that you will find membership rewarding, interesting and above all enjoyable and worthwhile

Our membership is made up of people who make or use scientific instruments, within the broadest sense. Our membership includes ~160 apprentices and young Freemen, and ~200 Liverymen. This latter group comes from academia and industry in about a 40:60 ratio.

There are three aspects to our Livery. Members can be as active as they would like within the Livery.

The first is the work of our Charity. This awards grants and scholarships to selected students who are keen and interested in STEM, from sixth formers through university, to those doing research after their Ph.D.’s.

The second is in line with our motto: “Moving forwards – giving back”. Many of our Liverymen have had careers where they needed to work very hard. They enjoy ‘giving back’ to our apprentices and freemen who are moving forward in education and early careers. This can range from helping during the apprentice years as Apprentice Masters, to linking and networking with freemen during their career with technical and commercial help.

The third is social. The Livery is a warm and sociable community of ‘like-minded’ individuals, and we have a number of formal and informal dinners in our Hall with its wonderful view overlooking the Thames, and an annual Banquet at the Mansion House of another Hall.  We have webinars on a range of interesting topics, and visits to some fascinating businesses and labs. We have lectures by distinguished academics and industrialists. We have a few activities where liverymen help out, including judging at inter-school competitions, our annual SIMposium, helping inform teachers at local schools on STEM issues.

Although a ‘modern’ Livery Company, we enjoy that special relationship with the City that Livery Companies have, some going back many centuries.  There are some lovely old City traditions, such as the annual sheep drive across London Bridge.

We are becoming a more diverse group and are welcoming members from across a range of backgrounds, disciplines and gender, especially among Freemen and apprentices. They are the future of the Livery.

Aubrey Dunford
Master 2023-2024