Smith's Prize

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The Smith's Prize is a prize awarded to research students in theoretical Physics, mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.

Establishment of the annual prize (awarded every year with the exception of 1917), to be divided between the two 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.

Some past recipients include: 1841 - George Gabriel Stokes; 1845 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin; 1854 - James Clerk Maxwell; 1880 - J. J. Thomson; 1901 - G. H. Hardy; 1907 - Arthur Stanley Eddington; 1936, Alan Turing; 1938, Fred Hoyle.

[edit] External links

• The Smith's Prize at Cambridge University by John Nuttall

[edit] References

A Corrective to the Spirit of too Exclusively Pure Mathematics: Robert Smith (1689 - 1768) and his Prizes at Cambridge University, June Barrow-Green, Annals of Science, 56 (1999), 271 - 316