The Beit Memorial Fellowship scheme, the first specifically to support young UK medical researchers, has made a remarkable contribution to British biomedical science over the past 100 years. John Gurdon's Nobel prize this year (see go.nature.com/yo3cxf) is the seventh to be awarded to a former Beit fellow.

Other Nobel laureates who once held Beit fellowships were Alexander Todd (chemistry, 1957), Fred Sanger (chemistry, 1958 and 1980), Macfarlane Burnet (physiology or medicine, 1960), Bernard Katz (physiology or medicine, 1970) and Tim Hunt (physiology or medicine, 2001). Some 10% of Beit fellows have gone on to become fellows of the Royal Society, including Marjory Stephenson (1914 Beit fellowship), who became one of the first two female Royal Society fellows in 1945.

The scheme merged with the Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship in 2009 to create the Wellcome–Beit Prize Fellowships (see go.nature.com/i2tofa).