 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1940 , Massey was awarded its Hughes Medal in 1955 , and its Royal Medal in 1958 . He was a member of the its council from 1949 to 1951 and again from 1959 to 1960 , before serving as its Physical Secretary and Vice @-@ President from 1969 to 1978 . He became a member of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research 's Nuclear Physics Sub @-@ Committee in 1956 . When the National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science was founded in 1957 , he became one of the initial members of its governing board . He became a member of the Research Grants Committee in 1959 , and was chairman of the Council for Scientific Policy from 1965 to 1970 . He was knighted for his services in 1960 . 
