The Leroy P. Steele Prizes are awarded every year by the American Mathematical Society, for distinguished research work and writing in the field of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. Since 1993, there has been a formal division into three categories. The prizes have been given since 1970, from a bequest of Leroy P. Steele, and were set up in honor of George David Birkhoff, William Fogg Osgood and William Caspar Graustein. The way the prizes are awarded was changed in 1976 and 1993, but the initial aim of honoring expository writing as well as research has been retained. The prizes of $5,000 are not given on a strict national basis, but relate to mathematical activity in the USA, and writing in English (originally, or in translation).

Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement

*2023 Nicholas M. Katz *2022 Richard P. Stanley *2021

Spencer Bloch Spencer Janney Bloch (born May 22, 1944; New York City) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to algebraic geometry and algebraic ''K''-theory. Bloch is a R. M. Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Departm ...

*2020 Karen Uhlenbeck *2019

Jeff Cheeger Jeff Cheeger (born December 1, 1943, Brooklyn, New York City) is a mathematician. Cheeger is professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in New York City. His main interests are differential geometry an ...

*2018 Jean Bourgain *2017 James G. Arthur *2016 Barry Simon *2015

Victor Kac Victor Gershevich (Grigorievich) Kac (russian: link=no, Виктор Гершевич (Григорьевич) Кац; born 19 December 1943) is a Soviet and American mathematician at MIT, known for his work in representation theory. He co-disc ...

*2014

Phillip A. Griffiths Phillip Augustus Griffiths IV (born October 18, 1938) is an American mathematician, known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to algebraic geometry. He was a major developer in particular ...

*2013

Yakov G. Sinai Yakov Grigorevich Sinai (russian: link=no, Я́ков Григо́рьевич Сина́й; born September 21, 1935) is a Russian-American mathematician known for his work on dynamical systems. He contributed to the modern metric theory of dy ...

*2012 Ivo M. Babuška *2011 John W. Milnor *2010 William Fulton *2009 Luis Caffarelli *2008 George Lusztig *2007 Henry P. McKean *2006 Frederick W. Gehring, Dennis P. Sullivan *2005 Israel M. Gelfand *2004 Cathleen Synge Morawetz *2003 Ronald Graham, Victor Guillemin *2002

Michael Artin Michael Artin (; born 28 June 1934) is a German-American mathematician and a professor emeritus in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematics department, known for his contributions to algebraic geometry.Elias Stein *2001

Harry Kesten Harry Kesten (November 19, 1931 – March 29, 2019) was an American mathematician best known for his work in probability, most notably on random walks on groups and graphs, random matrices, branching processes, and percolation theory. Biog ...

*2000

Isadore M. Singer Isadore Manuel Singer (May 3, 1924 – February 11, 2021) was an American mathematician. He was an Emeritus Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Professor Emeritus of Mathemati ...

*1999

Richard V. Kadison Richard Vincent Kadison (July 25, 1925 – August 22, 2018)F ...

*1998 Nathan Jacobson *1997 Ralph S. Phillips *1996 Goro Shimura *1995 John T. Tate *1994 Louis Nirenberg *1993 Eugene B. Dynkin

Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition

Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research

Leroy P. Steele Prizes awarded prior to 1993

*1992

Jacques Dixmier Jacques Dixmier (born 24 May 1924) is a French mathematician. He worked on operator algebras, especially C*-algebras, and wrote several of the standard reference books on them, and introduced the Dixmier trace and the Dixmier mapping. Biogr ...

for his books ''von Neumann Algebras'' (''Algèbres de von Neumann'' ), Gauthier-Villars, Paris (1957); ''C*-Algebras'' (''Les C*-Algèbres et leurs Representations'' ), Gauthier-Villars, Paris (1964); and ''Enveloping Algebras'' (''Algèbres Enveloppantes'' ), Gauthier-Villars, Paris (1974). *1992 James Glimm for his paper, ''Solution in the large for nonlinear hyperbolic systems of conservation laws'', Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics, XVIII (1965), pp. 697–715. *1992: Peter D. Lax for his numerous and fundamental contributions to the theory and applications of linear and nonlinear partial differential equations and functional analysis, for his leadership in the development of computational and applied mathematics, and for his extraordinary impact as a teacher. *1991: Jean-François Treves for Pseudodifferential and Fourier Integral Operators, Volumes 1 and 2 (Plenum Press, 1980). *1991

Eugenio Calabi Eugenio Calabi (born 11 May 1923) is an Italian-born American mathematician and the Thomas A. Scott Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in differential geometry, partial differential equations and t ...

for his fundamental work on global differential geometry, especially complex differential geometry. *1991

Armand Borel Armand Borel (21 May 1923 – 11 August 2003) was a Swiss mathematician, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and was a permanent professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, United States from 1957 to 1993. He worked in ...

for his extensive contributions in

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

and topology, the theory of Lie groups, their lattices and representations and the theory of automorphic forms, the theory of algebraic groups and their representations and extensive organizational and educational efforts to develop and disseminate modern *1990 R. D. Richtmyer for his book Difference Methods for Initial-Value Problems (Interscience, 1st Edition 1957 and 2nd Edition, with K. Morton, 1967). *1990

Bertram Kostant Bertram Kostant (May 24, 1928 – February 2, 2017) was an American mathematician who worked in representation theory, differential geometry, and mathematical physics. Early life and education Kostant grew up in New York City, where he gradua ...

for his paper, On the existence and irreducibility of certain series of representations, Lie Groups and their Representations (1975), pp. 231–329. *1990 Raoul Bott for having been instrumental in changing the face of geometry and topology, with his incisive contributions to characteristic classes, K-theory, index theory, and many other tools of modern mathematics. *1989

Daniel Gorenstein Daniel E. Gorenstein (January 1, 1923 – August 26, 1992) was an American mathematician. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1950 under Oscar Zariski, introducing in his dissert ...

for his book Finite Simple Groups, An Introduction to their Classification (Plenum Press, 1982); and his two survey articles The Classification of Finite Simple Groups and Classifying the Finite Simple Groups, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, volume 1 (1979) pp. 43–199, and volume 14 (1986) pp. 1–98, respectively. *1989

Alberto Calderón Alberto Pedro Calderón (September 14, 1920 – April 16, 1998) was an Argentinian mathematician. His name is associated with the University of Buenos Aires, but first and foremost with the University of Chicago, where Calderón and his mentor, t ...

for his paper Uniqueness in the Cauchy Problem for Partial Differential Equations, American Journal ofMathematics, volume 80 (1958), pp. 16–36. *1989 Irving Kaplansky for his lasting impact on mathematics, particularly mathematics in America. By his energetic example, his enthusiastic exposition, and his overall generosity, he has made striking changes in mathematics and has inspired generations of younger mathematicians. *1988 Sigurdur Helgason for his books Differential Geometry and Symmetric Spaces (Academic Press, 1962), Differential Geometry, Lie Groups, and Symmetric Spaces (Academic Press, 1978); and Groups and Geometric Analysis (Academic Press, 1984). *1988 Gian-Carlo Rota for his paper On the foundations of combinatorial theory, I. Theory of Möbius functions, Zeitschrift für Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie und Verwandte Gebiete, volume 2 (1964), pp. 340–368. *1988 Deane Montgomery for his lasting impact on mathematics, particularly mathematics in America. He is one of the founders of the modern theory of transformation groups and is particularly known for his contributions to the solution of

Hilbert's fifth problem Hilbert's fifth problem is the fifth mathematical problem from the problem list publicized in 1900 by mathematician David Hilbert, and concerns the characterization of Lie groups. The theory of Lie groups describes continuous symmetry in mathema ...

. *1987 Martin Gardner for his many books and articles on mathematics and particularly for his column "Mathematical Games" in Scientific American. *1987

Herbert Federer Herbert Federer (July 23, 1920 – April 21, 2010) was an American mathematician. He is one of the creators of geometric measure theory, at the meeting point of differential geometry and mathematical analysis.Parks, H. (2012''Remembering Herbert F ...

and Wendell Fleming for their pioneering paper, Normal and integral currents, Annals of Mathematics, volume 72 (1960), pp. 458–520. *1987 Samuel Eilenberg for his fundamental contributions to topology and algebra, in particular for his classic papers on singular homology and his work on axiomatic homology theory which had a profound influence on the development of algebraic topology. *1986 Donald E. Knuth for his expository work, The Art of Computer Programming, 3 Volumes (1st Edition 1968, 2nd Edition 1973). *1986 Rudolf E. Kálmán for his two fundamental papers: A new approach to linear filtering and prediction problems, Journal of Basic Engineering, volume 82, (1960), pp. 35–45; and Mathematical description of linear dynamical systems, SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, volume 1 (1963), pp. 152–192; and for his contribution to a third paper, (with R. S. Bucy) New results in linear filtering and prediction theory, Journal of Basic Engineering, volume 83D (1961), pp. 95–108. *1986 Saunders Mac Lane for his many contributions to algebra and algebraic topology, and in particular for his pioneering work in homological and categorical algebra. *1985

Michael Spivak Michael David Spivak (25 May 19401 October 2020)Biographical sketch in Notices of the AMS', Vol. 32, 1985, p. 576. was an American mathematician specializing in differential geometry, an expositor of mathematics, and the founder of Publish-or- ...

for his five-volume set, "A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry" (second edition, Publish or Perish, 1979). *1985

Robert Steinberg Robert Steinberg (May 25, 1922, Soroca, Bessarabia, Romania (present-day Moldova) – May 25, 2014) was a mathematician at the University of California, Los Angeles. He introduced the Steinberg representation, the Lang–Steinberg theorem, ...

for three papers on various aspects of the theory of algebraic groups: Representations of algebraic groups, Nagoya Mathematical Journal, volume 22 (1963), pp. 33–56; Regular elements of semisimple algebraic groups, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Publications Mathématiques, volume 25 (1965), pp. 49–80; and Endomorphisms of linear algebraic groups, Memoirs of the American Mathematical Society, volume 80 (1968). *1985 Hassler Whitney for his fundamental work on geometric problems, particularly in the general theory of manifolds, in the study of differentiable functions on closed sets, in geometric integration theory, and in the geometry of the tangents to a singular analytic space. *1984 Elias M. Stein for his book, Singular integrals and the differentiability properties of functions, Princeton University Press (1970). *1984 Lennart Carleson for his papers: An interpolation problem for bounded analytic functions, American Journal of Mathematics, volume 80 (1958), pp. 921–930; Interpolation by bounded analytic functions and the Corona problem, Annals of Mathematics (2), volume 76 (1962), pp. 547–559; and On convergence and growth of partial sums of Fourier series, Acta Mathematica volume 116 (1966), pp. 135–157. *1984 Joseph L. Doob for his fundamental work in establishing probability as a branch of mathematics and for his continuing profound influence on its development. *1983 Paul R. Halmos for his many graduate texts in mathematics and for his articles on how to write, talk and publish mathematics. *1983 Stephen Cole Kleene for three important papers which formed the basis for later developments in generalized recursion theory and descriptive set theory: Arithmetical predicates and function quantifiers, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 79 (1955), pp. 312–340; On the forms of the predicates in the theory of constructive ordinals (second paper), American Journal of Mathematics 77 (1955), pp. 405–428; and Hierarchies of number-theoretic predicates, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society 61 (1955), pp. 193–213. *1983 Shiing-Shen Chern for the cumulative influence of his total mathematical work, high level of research over a period of time, particular influence on the development of the field of differential geometry, and influence on mathematics through Ph.D. students. *1982

Lars Ahlfors Lars Valerian Ahlfors (18 April 1907 – 11 October 1996) was a Finnish mathematician, remembered for his work in the field of Riemann surfaces and his text on complex analysis. Background Ahlfors was born in Helsinki, Finland. His mother, Si ...

for his expository work in Complex analysis (McGraw–Hill Book Company, New York, 1953), and in Lectures on quasiconformal mappings (D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., New York, 1966) and Conformal invariants (McGraw–Hill Book Company, New York, 1973). *1982

Tsit Yuen Lam Tsit Yuen Lam (;Faculty Website
retrieved 2014-08-13. born 6 February 1942

for his expository work in his book Algebraic theory of quadratic forms (1973), and four of his papers: K_0 and K_1-an introduction to algebraic K-theory (1975), Ten lectures on quadratic forms over fields (1977), Serre's conjecture (1978), and The theory of ordered fields (1980). *1982 John W. Milnor for a paper of fundamental and lasting importance, On manifolds homeomorphic to the 7-sphere, Annals of Mathematics (2) 64 (1956), pp. 399–405. *1982

Fritz John Fritz John (14 June 1910 – 10 February 1994) was a German-born mathematician specialising in partial differential equations and ill-posed problems. His early work was on the Radon transform and he is remembered for John's equation. He was a ...

for the cumulative influence of his total mathematical work, high level of research over a period of time, particular influence on the development of a field, and influence on mathematics through Ph.D. students. *1981 Oscar Zariski for his work in algebraic geometry, especially his fundamental contributions to the algebraic foundations of this subject. *1981 Eberhard Hopf for three papers of fundamental and lasting importance: Abzweigung einer periodischen Lösung von einer stationären Lösung eines Differential systems, Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, volume 95 (1943), pp. 3–22; A mathematical example displaying features of turbulence, Communications on Applied Mathematics, volume 1 (1948), pp. 303–322; and The partial differential equation u_t + uu_x = u_, Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics, volume 3 (1950), pp. 201–230. *1981 Nelson Dunford,

Jacob T. Schwartz __NOTOC__ Jacob Theodore "Jack" Schwartz (January 9, 1930 – March 2, 2009) was an American mathematician, computer scientist, and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was the ...

for their expository book, Linear operators, Part I, General theory, 1958; Part II, Spectral theory, 1963; Part III, Spectral operators, 1971, Interscience Publishers, New York. *1980 André Weil for the total effect of his work on the general course of twentieth century mathematics, especially in the many areas in which he has made fundamental contributions. *1980 Harold M. Edwards for mathematical exposition in his books Riemann's zeta function, Pure and Applied Mathematics, number 58, Academic Press, New York and London, 1974; and Fermat's last theorem, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, number 50, Springer-Verlag, New York and Berlin, 1977. *1980

Gerhard Hochschild Gerhard Paul Hochschild (April 29, 1915 in Berlin – July 8, 2010 in El Cerrito, California) was a German-born American mathematician who worked on Lie groups, algebraic groups, homological algebra and algebraic number theory. Early life ...

for his significant work in homological algebra and its applications. *1979 Antoni Zygmund for his cumulative influence on the theory of Fourier series, real variables, and related areas of analysis. *1979 Robin Hartshorne for his expository research article Equivalence relations on algebraic cycles and subvarieties of small codimension, Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics, volume 29, American Mathematical Society, 1975, pp. 129–164; and his book Algebraic geometry, Springer-Verlag, Berlin and New York, 1977. *1979 Joseph J. Kohn for his fundamental paper: Harmonic integrals on strongly convex domains. I, II, Annals of Mathematics, Series 2, volume 78 (1963), pp. 112–248 and volume 79 (1964), pp. 450–472. *1979

Salomon Bochner Salomon Bochner (20 August 1899 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian mathematician, known for work in mathematical analysis, probability theory and differential geometry. Life He was born into a Jewish family in Podgórze (near Kraków), then ...

for his cumulative influence on the fields of probability theory, Fourier analysis, several complex variables, and differential geometry. *1979

Hans Lewy Hans Lewy (20 October 1904 – 23 August 1988) was a Jewish American mathematician, known for his work on partial differential equations and on the theory of functions of several complex variables. Life Lewy was born in Breslau, Silesia, on O ...

for three fundamental papers: On the local character of the solutions of an atypical linear differential equation in three variables and a related theorem for regular functions of two complex variables, Annals of Mathematics, Series 2, volume 64 (1956), pp. 514–522; An example of a smooth linear partial differential equation without solution, Annals of Mathematics, Series 2, volume 66 (1957), pp. 155–158; On hulls of holomorphy, Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics, volume 13 (1960), pp. 587–591. *1976, 1977, 1978: No awards were made. *1975 George W. Mackey for his paper, Ergodic theory and its significance for statistical mechanics and probability theory, Advances in Mathematics, volume 12 (1974), pp. 178–286. *1975 H. Blaine Lawson for his paper, Foliations, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, volume 80 (1974), pp. 369–418. *1975 Lipman Bers for his paper, Uniformization, moduli, and Kleinian groups, Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society, volume 4 (1972), pp. 257–300. *1975 Martin Davis for his paper,

Hilbert's tenth problem Hilbert's tenth problem is the tenth on the list of mathematical problems that the German mathematician David Hilbert posed in 1900. It is the challenge to provide a general algorithm which, for any given Diophantine equation (a polynomial equ ...

is unsolvable, American Mathematical Monthly, volume 80 (1973), pp. 233–269. *1975

Joseph L. Taylor Joseph Lawrence Taylor (7 April 1941 - 28 July 2016) was an American mathematician, specializing in Banach algebras and non-commutative harmonic analysis. Education and career Taylor received from Louisiana State University in 1963 his bachelor's ...

for his paper, Measure algebras, CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, Number 16, American Mathematical Society, 1972. *1972 Edward B. Curtis for his paper, Simplicial homotopy theory, Advances in Mathematics, volume 6 (1971), pp. 107–209. *1972 William J. Ellison for his paper, Waring's problem, American Mathematical Monthly, volume 78 (1971), pp. 10–36. *1972 Lawrence E. Payne for his paper, Isoperimetric inequalities and their applications, SIAM Review, volume 9 (1967), pp. 453–488. *1972

Dana S. Scott Dana Stewart Scott (born October 11, 1932) is an American logician who is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, C ...

for his paper, A proof of the independence of the continuum hypothesis, Mathematical Systems Theory, volume 1 (1967), pp. 89–111. *1971 James B. Carrell for his paper, written jointly with

Jean Dieudonné Jean Alexandre Eugène Dieudonné (; 1 July 1906 – 29 November 1992) was a French mathematician, notable for research in abstract algebra, algebraic geometry, and functional analysis, for close involvement with the Nicolas Bourbaki pseudonym ...

, Invariant theory, old and new, Advances in Mathematics, volume 4 (1970), pp. 1–80. *1971

for his paper, Algebraic geometry, Advances in Mathematics, volume 3 (1969), pp. 223–321, and for his paper, written jointly with James B. Carrell, Invariant theory, old and new, Advances in Mathematics, volume 4 (1970), pp. 1–80. *1971

for his paper, Periods of integrals on algebraic manifolds, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, volume 76 (1970), pp. 228–296. *1970 Solomon Lefschetz for his paper, A page of mathematical autobiography, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, volume 74 (1968), pp. 854–879.

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