Smith's Prize

The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually awarded to two research students in theoretical Physics, mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.June Barrow-Green, A Corrective to the Spirit of too Exclusively Pure Mathematics: Robert Smith (1689 - 1768) and his Prizes at Cambridge University", Annals of Science, 56 (1999), 271 - 316]

Establishment of the annual prize (awarded every year with the exception of 1917), to be divided between the two or more junior Bachelors of Arts who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy, 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, a portion of the interest from which was to be dedicated to the prize. Originally the Smith’s Prize was based on written examinations but from 1885 it was awarded for the best essay. The Rayleigh Prize was an additional prize first awarded in 1911.

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.

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. [ [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2006-07/special/09/section_g.pdf Cambridge University Trust Funds] p.34]

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, [ [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/1998-9/weekly/5755/20.html Reporter 11/11/98: Graces submitted to the Regent House on 11 November 1998 ] ] the standard for the former being higher than that required for the latter.

mith's Prize

For the period up to 1940 a complete list is given in including titles of prize essays from 1889-1940.columns-list|2
*1769 George Atwood, Thomas Parkinson
*1770 W. Smith, J. Oldershaw
*1771 T. Starkie, R. Keddington
*1772 G. Pretyman, J. Lane
*1773 J. J. Brundish, G. Whitmore
*1774 I. Milner, H. Waring
*1775 S. Vince, H. W. Coulthurst
*1776 J. Oldershaw, W. Wright
*1777 D. Owen, J. Baynes
*1776 W. Farish, W. Taylor
*1779 T. Jones, H. Marsh
*1780 St J. Prest, W. Frend
*1781 T. Catton, H. Ainslie
*1782 J. Wood, J. Hailstone
*1783 F. J. H. Wollaston, J. Procter
*1784 R. A. Ingram, J. Holden
*1785 W. Lax, J. Dudley
* 1786 J. Bell, G. Hutchinson
* 1787 J. Littledale, A. Frampton
* 1788 J. Brinkley, E. Outram
* 1789 W. Millers, J. Bewsher
* 1790 B. Bridge, F. Wrangham
* 1791 D. M. Peacock, W. Gooch
* 1792 J. Palmer, G. F. Tavel
* 1793 T. Harrison, T. Strickland
* 1794 G. Butler, J. S. Copley
* 1795 R. Woodhouse, W. Atthill
* 1796 J. Kempthorne, W. Dealtry
* 1797 John Hudson, J. Lowthian
* 1798 T. Sowerby, R. Martin
* 1799 W. F. Boteler, J. Brown
* 1800 J. Inman, G. D’Oyley
* 1801 H. Martyn, W. Woodall
* 1802 T. P. White, J. Grisdale
* 1803 T. Starkie, J. Hoare
* 1804 W. A. Garratt, J. Kaye
* 1805 S. H. Christie, T. Turton Ð
* 1806 J. F. Pollock, H. Walter
* 1807 H. Gipps, J. Carr
* 1808 H. Bickersteth, M. Bland
* 1809 Edward Hall Alderson, G. C. Gorham , J. Standly
* 1810 William Henry Maule, T. S. Brandreth
* 1811 T. E. Dicey, W. French
* 1812 C. Neale, J. W. Jordan
* 1813 John Herschel, George Peacock
* 1814 R. Gwatkin, H. Wilkinson
* 1815 C. G. F. Leicester F. Calvert
* 1816 E. Jacob, W. Whewell
* 1817 J. T. Austen, T. Chevallier
* 1818 J. G. S. Lefevre, J. Hind
* 1819 J. King, G. M. Cooper
* 1820 H. Coddington, C. S. Bird
* 1821 H. Melvill, S. Atkinson
* 1822 H. Holditch, M. Peacock
* 1823 G. B. Airy, C. JeΠreys
* 1824 J. Cowling, J. Bowstead
* 1825 J. Challis, W. Williamson
* 1826 W. Law, W. H. Hanson
* 1827 T. Turner, H. P. Gordon
* 1828 C. Perry, J. Bailey
* 1829 W. Cavendish, H. Philpott
* 1830 E. Steventon, J. W. L. Heaviside
* 1831 S. Earnshaw, T. Gaskin
* 1832 D. D. Heath, S. Laing
* 1833 A. Ellice, J. Bowstead
* 1834 P. Kelland, T. R. Birks
* 1835 H. Cotterill, H. Goulburn
* 1836 Archibald Smith, John William Colenso
* 1837 W. N. Gri n E. Brumell
* 1838 T. J. Main J. G. Mould
* 1839 P. Frost B. M. Cowie
* 1841 George Gabriel Stokes
* 1842 Arthur Cayley
* 1843 John Couch Adams [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Adams.html Adams biography ] ]
* 1845 William Thomson and Stephen Parkinson
* 1848 Isaac Todhunter [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Todhunter.html Todhunter biography ] ] and Alfred Barry
* 1852 Peter Guthrie Tait and Steele [http://www.clerkmaxwellfoundation.org/MathematicalTripos_Results2008_2_8.pdf]
* 1853 T.B. Sprague and R.B. Batty
* 1854 James Clerk Maxwell and Edward John Routh [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Routh.html Routh biography ] ]
* 1865 John Strutt
* 1870 Alfred George Greenhill and R. Pendlebury
* 1872 Horace Lamb
* 1875 William Burnside (first ) and George Chrystal (second)
* 1878 John Edward Aloysius Steggall
* 1880 Joseph Larmor and J. J. Thomson
* 1886 Robert Franklin Muirhead
* 1888 Alfred Dixon
* 1889 Henry Baker
* 1891 Hector Munro Macdonald [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Macdonald.html Macdonald biography ] ] and R. A. Sampson
* 1897 E. T. Whittaker
* 1898 Ernest Barnes and Richard Cockburn Maclaurin
* 1901 G. H. Hardy and James Hopwood Jeans [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hardy.html Hardy biography ] ] (equal)
* 1904 Ebenezer Cunningham [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Cunningham.html Cunningham biography ] ]
* 1905 Harry Bateman [ [http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Bateman.html Bateman biography ] ]
* 1907 Arthur Stanley Eddington
* 1908 J. E. Littlewood and James Mercer [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Mercer.html Mercer biography ] ]
* 1909 Herbert Turnbull [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Turnbull.html Turnbull biography ] ] and George Neville Watson
* 1910 William Edward Hodgson Berwick [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Berwick.html Berwick biography ] ]
* 1912 E.H. Neville, Louis Mordell [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Mordell.html Mordell biography ] ]
* 1913 Sydney Chapman [Obituary, Professor Sydney Chapman, An outstanding mathematical physicist, The Times [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Obits/Chapman.html] ]
* 1917 NO PRIZE.
* 1918 Edward Lindsay Ince [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ince.html Ince biography ] ] , K.A. Rau.
* 1921 Albert Edward Ingham [ [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Ingham.html Ingham biography ] ] and William Michael Herbert Greaves
* 1922 Edward Arthur Milne [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Milne.html Milne biography ] ]
* 1923 John Charles Burkill [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Burkill.html Burkill biography ] ]
* 1925 Llewellyn Hilleth Thomas
* 1927 Sydney Goldstein
* 1929 John Macnaughten Whittaker [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Whittaker_John.html Whittaker_John biography ] ]
* 1930 John Arthur Todd [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Todd.html Todd biography ] ] and Raymond Paley
* 1931 H.S.M Coxeter [http://www.math.toronto.edu/mpugh/Coxeter.pdf]
* 1936 Alan Turing, E.A. Green
* 1937 E.R. Love, H.R. Pitt
* 1938 Fred Hoyle
* 1939 T.A. .Easterfield, HNV Temperley
* 1940 I. J. Good R. E. Macpherson
* 1949 Derek Taunt
* 1950 Abdus Salam and Brian Haselgrove
* 1960 Keith Moffatt
* 1962 John Kingman [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Kingman.html Kingman biography ] ]
* 1967 Stephen Watson [ [http://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/teaching/fellows/display/index.cfm?fellow=74 Professor Stephen Watson's biography] on the Emmanuel College website]
* 1971 Douglas C. Heggie
* 1975 Brian D. Ripley
* 1976 Roger Heath-Brown and Bernard Silverman
* 1988 Andrew W Woods [ [http://abudhabi.spe.org/section.cfm?id=53 SPE AbuDhabi Section ] ]
* 1998 S. M. Blanchflower, A. E. Holroyd, M. J. Walters, J. A. Dee, B. Szendroi and Damon J. Wischik [ [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/1997-8/weekly/5734/11.html Cambridge University Reporter 22/4/98: Awards] ]

Rayleigh Prize

A more complete list of Raleigh prize recipients is given in Appendix 1 of
* 1930 Harold Davenport [ [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Davenport.html Davenport biography ] ]
* 1937 David Stanley Evans [ [http://www.saao.ac.za/assa/html/his-astr-evans_ds.html Assa Historical Section ] ]
* 1980 David Benson [ [http://www.maths.abdn.ac.uk/staff/display.php?key=d.j.benson Staff Details ] ]
* 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

* 1974 Cameron L. Stewart and Allan J. Clarke
* 1975 Frank Kelly [ [http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~frank/CV/cv.pdf Frank Kelly's CV] ] 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 Michael Gutperle
* 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, V. H. Hoàng, A. W. Rempel and Jium-Huei Proty Wu

mith-Knight Prize

* 1979 Adrian John Baddeley
* 1999 D. W. Essex, H. S. Reall, A. Saikia, A. C. Faul, D. C. Richer, M. J. Vartiainen, T. A. Fisher, J. Rosenzweig, J. Wierzba and J. B. Gutowski [ [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/1998-9/weekly/5770/13.html Reporter 21/4/99: Awards ] ]
* 2000 D. C. Richer [ [http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/Queens/Record/2000/awards.html Queens' College Record 2000] ]
* 2001 B. J. Green, T A. Mennim, A. Mijatovic, F. A. Dolan, Paul D. Metcalfe and S. R. Tod
* 2002 Konstantin Ardakov [http://www.maths.nottingham.ac.uk/personal/pmzka1/CV.pdf] , Edward Crane [http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/crane/cv/cv.pdf] and Simon Wadsley [ [http://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/publications/Annual%20Report%202005.pdf Jesus College Annual Report 2005] p.13]
* 2004 Neil Roxburgh [http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/nr264/cv.ps]
* 2008 Miguel Paulos

Rayleigh–Knight and Smith-Knight Prize

* 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. T. 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 [http://r-d-wilkinson.staff.shef.ac.uk/Full_CV.pdf]
* 2007 Anders Hansen [ [http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/na/people/Anders/ Anders Hansen ] ] and Vladimir Lazić

References