Smith's Prize
The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in theoretical Physics, mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.[1]
History
The Smith Prize fund was founded by bequest of Robert Smith upon his death in 1768, having by his will left £3500 South Sea Company stock to the University. Every year two or more junior Bachelors of Arts students who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy were to be awarded a prize from the fund. The prize was awarded every year from 1769 to 1998 except 1917.
From 1769 to 1885 the prize was awarded for the best performance in a series of examinations. In 1854 George Stokes included in the exam a question on an interesting result William Thomson had written to him about, which we now know as Stokes' theorem. T. W. Körner notes
Only a small handful of students took the Smith's prize examination in the nineteenth century. When Karl Pearson took the examination in 1879, the examiners were Stokes, Maxwell, Cayley, and Todhunter and the examinees went on each occasion to the examiner's house, did a morning paper, had lunch there, and continued their work on the paper in the afternoon.[2]
In 1885 the examination was renamed Part III, (now known as the Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics) and the prize was awarded for the best submitted essay rather than examination performance. According to Barrow-Green
By fostering an interest in the study of applied mathematics, the competition contributed towards the success in mathematical physics that was to become the hallmark of Cambridge mathematics during the second half of the nineteenth century.[1]
In the twentieth century the competition stimulated postgraduate research in mathematics in Cambridge and the competition has played a significant role by providing a springboard for graduates considering an academic career. The majority of prize-winners have gone on to become professional mathematicians or physicists.
The Rayleigh Prize was an additional prize first awarded in 1911.
Value of the prizes
Originally in 1769 the prizes they were worth £25 each and remained at that level for 100 years. In 1867 they fell to £23 and in 1915 were still reported to be worth that amount.[citation needed] By 1930 the value had risen to about £30 and by 1940 the value had risen by a further one pound to £31. By 1998 a Smith’s Prize was worth around £250.[1]
In 2007 the value of the three prize funds was roughly £175,000.[3]
Reorganization of prizes
In 1998 the Smith Prize, Rayleigh Prize and J. T. Knight Prize were replaced by the Smith-Knight Prize and Rayleigh-Knight Prize,[4] the standard for the former being higher than that required for the latter.
Smith's Prize recipients
For the period up to 1940 a complete list is given in Barrow-Green (1999) including titles of prize essays from 1889-1940. The following is a selection from this list.
Awarded for examination performance
Awarded for essay
Rayleigh Prize recipients
A more complete list of Rayleigh prize recipients is given in Appendix 1 ("List of Prize Winners and their Essays 1885-1940") of[1]
- 1913 Ralph H. Fowler[33]
- 1927 William McCrea[34]
- 1930 Harold Davenport[35]
- 1937 David Stanley Evans[36]
- 1951 Gabriel Andrew Dirac[37]
- 1980 David Benson[38]
- 1982 Susan Stepney[39]
- 1994 Group 4: J.D. King, A.P. Martin. Group 5: K.M. Croudace, J.R. Elliot.
- 1998 P. Bolchover, O. T. Johnson, R. W. Verrill, R. Bhattacharyya, U. A. Salam, S. A. Wright and T. J. Hunt
J. T. Knight Prize recipients
- 1974 Cameron Leigh Stewart [40] Allan J. Clarke
- 1975 Frank Kelly[41] and Ian Sobey
- 1977 Gerard Murphy
- 1981 Bruce Allen and Philip K. Pollett
- 1983 Ya-xiang Yuan
- 1985 Reinhard Diestel
- 1988 Somak Raychaudhury
- 1990 Darryn W. Waugh
- 1991 Renzo L. Ricca
- 1992 Grant Lythe, Christophe Pichon
- 1993 Anastasios Christou Petkou
- 1994 Group 1: M. Gaberdiel, Y. Liu. Group 3: H.A. Chamblin. Group 4: P.P. Avelino, S.G. Lack, A.L. Sydenham. Group 5: S. Keras, U. Meyer, G.M. Pritchard, H. Ramanathan, K. Strobl. Group 6: A.O. Bender, V. Toledano Laredo.
- 1996 Thomas Manke
- 1997 Arno Schindlmayr
- 1998 A. Bejancu, G. M. Keith, J. Sawon, D. R. Brecher, T. S. H. Leinster, S. Slijepcevic, K. K. Damodaran, A. R. Mohebalhojeh, C. T. Snydal, F. De Rooij, O. Pikhurko, David K. H. Tan, P. R. Hiemer, T. Prestidge, F. Wagner, Viet Ha Hoàng, A. W. Rempel and Jium-Huei Proty Wu
Smith-Knight Prize recipients
- 1999 D. W. Essex, H. S. Reall, A. Saikia, A. C. Faul, Duncan C. Richer, M. J. Vartiainen, T. A. Fisher, J. Rosenzweig, J. Wierzba and J. B. Gutowski[42][43]
- 2001 B. J. Green, T A. Mennim, A. Mijatovic, F. A. Dolan, Paul D. Metcalfe and S. R. Tod
- 2002 Konstantin Ardakov,[44] Edward Crane[45] and Simon Wadsley[46]
- 2004 Neil Roxburgh[47]
- 2008 Miguel Paulos
- 2009 Olga Goulko
- 2010 Miguel Custódio
Rayleigh–Knight Prize recipients
- 1999 C. D. Bloor, R. Oeckl, J. Y. Whiston, Y-C. Chen, P. L. Rendon, C. Wunderer, J. H. P. Dawes, D. M. Rodgers, H-M. Gutmann and A. N. Ross
- 2001 A. F. R. Bain, S. Khan, S. Schafer-Nameki, N. R. Farr, J. Niesen, J. H. Siggers, M. Fayers, D. Oriti, M. J. Tildesley, J. R. Gair, M. R. E. H. Pickles, A. J. Tolley, S. R. Hodges, R. Portugues, C. Voll, M. Kampp, P. J. P. Roche and B. M. J. B. Walker[48]
- 2004 Oliver Rinne
- 2005 Guillaume Pierre Bascoul and Giuseppe Di Graziano
- 2006 Richard Wilkinson[49]
- 2007 Anders Hansen[50] and Vladimir Lazić
References
- ^ a b c d Barrow-Green, June (1999), "A Corrective to the Spirit of too Exclusively Pure Mathematics: Robert Smith (1689–1768) and his Prizes at Cambridge University", Annals of Science, 56: 271–316, doi:10.1080/000337999296418
- ^ Discussion on the establishment of a degree of Master of Mathematics and a degree of Master of Advanced Study, Cambridge University, 28 January 2009, retrieved 30 April 2009
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|unused_data=ignored (help)[dead link] - ^ Cambridge University Trust Funds p.34
- ^ Reporter 11/11/98: Graces submitted to the Regent House on 11 November 1998
- ^ Adams biography
- ^ Todhunter biography
- ^ http://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/MathematicalTripos_Results2008_2_8.pdf
- ^ Routh biography
- ^ Macdonald biography
- ^ Hardy biography
- ^ Cunningham biography
- ^ Bateman biography
- ^ Mercer biography
- ^ Turnbull biography
- ^ Berwick biography
- ^ .Obituary Notices : Livens, George Henry, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 111, p.159 Bibliographic Code: 1951MNRAS.111..159 [1]
- ^ Mordell biography
- ^ Obituary, Professor Sydney Chapman, An outstanding mathematical physicist, The Times [2]
- ^ Ince biography
- ^ Ingham biography
- ^ Milne biography
- ^ Burkill biography
- ^ Whittaker_John biography
- ^ Todd biography
- ^ http://www.math.toronto.edu/mpugh/Coxeter.pdf
- ^ Kingman biography
- ^ Professor Stephen Watson's biography on the Emmanuel College website
- ^ Australian National University Research School of Earth Sciences
- ^ [3]
- ^ SPE AbuDhabi Section
- ^ Personal, Gordon Ogilvie, retrieved 8 July 2009
- ^ Cambridge University Reporter 22/4/98: Awards
- ^ Mehra, Jagdish; Rechenberg, Helmut (2000), The Historical Development of Quantum Theory: The Fundamental Equations of Quantum Mechanics 1925-1926 : The Reception of the Quantum Mechanics 1925-1926, Springer, p. 54, ISBN 0387951784
- ^ William Hunter McCrea Biography, The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, retrieved 14 June 2009
- ^ Davenport biography
- ^ Assa Historical Section
- ^ Koshy, Thomas (2004), Discrete mathematics with applications, Academic Press, p. 571, ISBN 0124211801
- ^ Staff Details
- ^ Susan Stepney's mini CV
- ^ http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/PM_Dept/Homepages/Stewart/cv.shtml
- ^ Frank Kelly's CV
- ^ Reporter 21/4/99: Awards
- ^ Queens' College Record 2000
- ^ http://www.maths.nottingham.ac.uk/personal/pmzka1/CV.pdf
- ^ http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/crane/cv/cv.pdf
- ^ Jesus College Annual Report 2005 p.13
- ^ http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/nr264/cv.ps
- ^ Cambridge University Reporter
- ^ http://r-d-wilkinson.staff.shef.ac.uk/Full_CV.pdf
- ^ Anders Hansen
