Smith's Prize
Encyclopedia
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.
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
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
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.
In 2007 the value of the three prize funds was roughly £175,000.
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
, mathematics and applied mathematics
Applied mathematics
Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods that are typically used in science, engineering, business, and industry. Thus, "applied mathematics" is a mathematical science with specialized knowledge...
at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, England.
History
The Smith Prize fund was founded by bequest of Robert SmithRobert Smith (mathematician)
Robert Smith was an English mathematician and music theorist.-Life:Smith was probably born at Lea near Gainsborough, the son of the rector of Gate Burton, Lincolnshire...
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
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...
had written to him about, which we now know as Stokes' theorem
Stokes' theorem
In differential geometry, Stokes' theorem is a statement about the integration of differential forms on manifolds, which both simplifies and generalizes several theorems from vector calculus. Lord Kelvin first discovered the result and communicated it to George Stokes in July 1850...
. T. W. Körner
Thomas William Körner
Thomas William Körner is a British pure mathematician and the author of school books. He is titular Professor of Fourier Analysis in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity Hall...
notes
Only a small handful of students took the Smith's prize examination in the nineteenth century. When Karl PearsonKarl PearsonKarl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
took the examination in 1879, the examiners were Stokes, MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
, CayleyArthur CayleyArthur Cayley F.R.S. was a British mathematician. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics....
, and TodhunterIsaac TodhunterIsaac Todhunter FRS , was an English mathematician who is best known today for the books he wrote on mathematics and its history.- Life and work :...
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.
In 1885 the examination was renamed Part III, (now known as the Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics
Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics
Part III of the Mathematical Tripos is a one year Masters-level taught course in mathematics offered at the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge currently taken by over 200 students each year...
) 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.
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. 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.In 2007 the value of the three prize funds was roughly £175,000.
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, 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 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- 1913 Ralph H. FowlerRalph H. FowlerSir Ralph Howard Fowler OBE FRS was a British physicist and astronomer.-Education:Fowler was initially educated at home but then attended Evans' preparatory school at Horris Hill and Winchester College...
- 1923 Edward CollingwoodEdward CollingwoodSir Edward Foyle Collingwood CBE FRS FRSE DL was an English mathematician and scientist.He was a member of the Eglingham branch of a prominent Northumbrian family, the son of Col. Cuthbert Collingwood of the Lancashire Fusiliers, whose family seat was at Lilburn Tower, near Wooler, Northumberland...
- 1927 William McCreaWilliam McCrea (astronomer)Sir William Hunter McCrea FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician.-Biography:His family moved to Kent in 1906 and then Derbyshire where he attended Chesterfield Grammar School. His father was a school master at Netherthorpe Grammar School in Staveley...
- 1930 Harold DavenportHarold DavenportHarold Davenport FRS was an English mathematician, known for his extensive work in number theory.-Early life:...
- 1937 David Stanley EvansDavid Stanley EvansDavid Stanley Evans was a British astronomer, noted for his use of lunar occultations to measure stellar angular diameters during the 1950s.-Early life and education:...
- 1951 Gabriel Andrew DiracGabriel Andrew DiracGabriel Andrew Dirac was a mathematician who mainly worked in graph theory. He stated a sufficient condition for a graph to contain a Hamiltonian circuit.Dirac received his Ph.D...
- 1980 David Benson
- 1982 Susan Stepney
- 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 StewartCameron Leigh StewartCameron Leigh Stewart is a Canadian mathematician. He is currently a professor of mathematics at the University of Waterloo. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1989. He was appointed Fellow of the Fields Institute in 2008. Since 2003 he has held a Canada Research Chair . Since...
Allan J. Clarke - 1975 Frank KellyFrank Kelly (professor)Francis Patrick "Frank" Kelly, FRS is professor of the Mathematics of Systems in the Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge, and Master of Christ's College, Cambridge....
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
- 2001 B. J. Green, T A. Mennim, A. Mijatovic, F. A. Dolan, Paul D. Metcalfe and S. R. Tod
- 2002 Konstantin Ardakov, Edward Crane and Simon Wadsley
- 2004 Neil Roxburgh
- 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
- 2004 Oliver Rinne
- 2005 Guillaume Pierre Bascoul and Giuseppe Di Graziano
- 2006 Richard Wilkinson
- 2007 Anders Hansen and Vladimir Lazić