Sylvester Medal

The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society (London) for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize.[1] It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford in the 1880s, and first awarded in 1901, having been suggested by a group of Sylvester's friends (primarily Raphael Meldola) after his death in 1897.[2] Initially awarded every three years with a prize of around £900,[2] the Royal Society have announced that starting in 2009 it will be awarded every two years instead, and is to be aimed at 'early to mid career stage scientist' rather than an established mathematician.[1] The award winner is chosen by the Society's A-side awards committee, which handles physical rather than biological science awards.

As of 2008, 36 medals have been awarded, of which 27 have been awarded to citizens of the United Kingdom and two to citizens of France. One medal each has been won by citizens of New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Sweden and the United States. Only one woman (Mary Cartwright) has ever won the Medal.

List of recipients

Year Name Nationality Rationale[3][4][5]
1901 Poincaré, HenriHenri Poincaré French "for his many and important contributions to mathematical science."
1904 Cantor, GeorgGeorg Cantor German "for his brilliant researches in the theories of aggregates and of sets of points of the arithmetic continuum, of transfinite numbers, and Fouriers series."
1907 Wirtinger, WilhelmWilhelm Wirtinger Austrian "for his contributions to the general theory of functions."
1910 Baker, Henry FrederickHenry Frederick Baker British "for his researches in the theory of Abelian functions and for his edition of Sylvesters Collected Works."
1913 Glaisher, James Whitbread LeeJames Whitbread Lee Glaisher British "for his mathematical researches, especially those in connection with the theory of numbers and the theory of elliptic functions."
1916 Darboux, Jean GastonJean Gaston Darboux French "for his distinguished contributions to mathematical science."
1919 MacMahon, Percy AlexanderPercy Alexander MacMahon British "for his researches in pure mathematics, especially in connection with the partition of numbers and analysis."
1922 Levi-Civita, TullioTullio Levi-Civita Italian "for his researches in geometry and mechanics."
1925 Whitehead, Alfred NorthAlfred North Whitehead British "for his researches on the foundations of mathematics."
1928 Young, William HenryWilliam Henry Young British "for his contributions to the theory of functions of a real variable."
1931 Whittaker, Edmund TaylorEdmund Taylor Whittaker British "for his original contributions to both pure and applied mathematics."
1934 Russell, BertrandBertrand Russell British "for his distinguished work on the foundations of mathematics."
1937 Love, Augustus Edward HoughAugustus Edward Hough Love British "for his researches in classical mathematical physics, particularly the mathematical theories of elasticity and hydro-dynamics."
1940 Hardy, Godfrey HaroldGodfrey Harold Hardy British "for his important contributions to many branches of pure mathematics."
1943 Littlewood, John EdensorJohn Edensor Littlewood British "for his mathematical discoveries and supreme insight in the analytical theory of numbers."
1946 Watson, George NevilleGeorge Neville Watson British "for his distinguished contributions to pure mathematics in the field of mathematical analysis and in particular for his work on asymptotic expansion and on general transforms.
1949 Mordell, Louis JoelLouis Joel Mordell British "for his distinguished researches in pure mathematics, especially for his discoveries in the theory of numbers."
1952 Besicovitch, Abram SamoilovitchAbram Samoilovitch Besicovitch Russian "for his outstanding work on almost-periodic functions, the theory of measure and integration and many other topics of theory of functions."
1955 Titchmarsh, Edward CharlesEdward Charles Titchmarsh British "for his distinguished researches on the Riemann zeta-function, analytical theory of numbers, Fourier analysis, and eigen-function expansions."
1958 Newman, MaxMax Newman British "for his distinguished contributions to combinatory topology, Boolean algebras and mathematical logic."
1961 Hall, PhilipPhilip Hall British "for his distinguished researches in algebra."
1964 Cartwright, MaryMary Cartwright British "for her distinguished contributions to analysis and the theory of functions of a real and complex variable."
1967 Davenport, HaroldHarold Davenport British "for his many distinguished contributions to the theory of numbers."
1970 Temple, George Frederick JamesGeorge Frederick James Temple British "for his many distinguished contributions to applied mathematics, especially in his work on distribution theory."
1973 Cassels, John William ScottJohn William Scott Cassels British "for his numerous important contributions to the theory of numbers."
1976 Kendall, David GeorgeDavid George Kendall British "for his many distinguished contributions to probability theory and its applications."
1979 Higman, GrahamGraham Higman British "for his distinguished and profoundly influential contributions to the theory of finite and infinite groups.
1982 Adams, John FrankJohn Frank Adams British "for his solution of several outstanding problems of algebraic topology and of the methods he invented for this purpose which have proved of prime importance in the theory of the subject."
1985 Thompson, John GriggsJohn Griggs Thompson American "for his fundamental contributions leading to the complete classification of all finite simple groups."
1988 Wall, Charles T. C.Charles T. C. Wall British "for his contributions to the topology of manifolds and related topics in algebra and geometry."
1991 Roth, Klaus FriedrichKlaus Friedrich Roth British "for his many contributions to number theory and in particular his solution of the famous problem concerning approximating algebraic numbers by rationals."
1994 Whittle, PeterPeter Whittle New Zealand "for his major distinctive contributions to time series analysis, to optimisation theory, and to a wide range of topics in applied probability theory and the mathematics of operational research."
1997 Coxeter, Harold Scott MacDonaldHarold Scott MacDonald Coxeter British "for his achievements in geometry, notably projective geometry, non-euclidean geometry and the analysis of spatial shapes and patterns, and for his substantial contributions to practical group-theory which pervade much modern mathematics."
2000 Hitchin, Nigel JamesNigel James Hitchin British "for his important contributions to many parts of differential geometry combining this with complex geometry, integrable systems and mathematical physics interweaving the most modern ideas with the classical literature."
2003 Carleson, LennartLennart Carleson Swedish "for his deep and fundamental contributions to mathematics in the field of analysis and complex dynamics."
2006 Swinnerton-Dyer, PeterPeter Swinnerton-Dyer British "for his fundamental work in arithmetic geometry and his many contributions to the theory of ordinary differential equations."
2009 Ball, John M.John M. Ball British "for his seminal work in mechanics and nonlinear analysis and his encouragement of mathematical research in developing countries."
2010 Segal, GraemeGraeme Segal British "for his highly influential and elegant work on the development of topology, geometry and quantum field theory, bridging the gap between physics and pure mathematics."

References

  1. ^ a b "The Royal Society: The Sylvester Medal (1901)". The Royal Society. http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1765. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  2. ^ a b "Sylvester Medal". JOC/EFR. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/SylvesterMedal.html. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  3. ^ "Sylvester recent winners". The Royal Society. http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1766. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  4. ^ "Sylvester archive winners 1949 - 1901". The Royal Society. http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1767. Retrieved 2008-12-07. 
  5. ^ "Recent award winners". The Royal Society. http://royalsociety.org/Awards. Retrieved 2010-10-06. 

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