The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
(London) for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize.
It was named in honour of
James Joseph Sylvester
James Joseph Sylvester (3 September 1814 – 15 March 1897) was an English mathematician. He made fundamental contributions to matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, and combinatorics. He played a leadership ...
, the
Savilian Professor of Geometry at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
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.
Initially awarded every three years with a prize of around £900,
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.
The award winner is chosen by the Society's A-side awards committee, which handles physical rather than biological science awards.
, 45 medals have been awarded, of which all but 10 have been awarded to citizens of the United Kingdom, two to citizens of France and United States, and one medal each has been won by citizens of New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Sweden and South Africa. three women have won the medal,
Mary Cartwright in 1964,
Dusa McDuff in 2018, and
Frances Kirwan
Dame Frances Clare Kirwan, (born 21 August 1959) is a British mathematician, currently Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford. Her fields of specialisation are algebraic and symplectic geometry.
Education
Kirwan was ed ...
in 2021.
List of recipients
See also
*
List of mathematics awards
This list of mathematics awards is an index to articles about notable awards for mathematics. The list is organized by the region and country of the organization that sponsors the award, but awards may be open to mathematicians from around the wo ...
References
External links
Royal Society: Sylvester Medal
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Awards of the Royal Society
Mathematics awards
Triennial events
Awards established in 1901
1901 in science