The Adams Prize is a prize awarded each year by the Faculty of Mathematics at
St John's College to a UK-based mathematician for distinguished research in mathematical sciences.
The prize is named after the mathematician
John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams ( ; 5 June 1819 – 21 January 1892) was a British mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall, and died in Cambridge.
His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position o ...
and was endowed by members of St John's College and approved by the senate of the university in 1848, to commemorate Adams'
role
A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an
expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indi ...
in the discovery of the planet
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...
. Originally open only to Cambridge graduates, the current stipulation is that the mathematician must reside in the UK and be under forty years of age.
The Adams Prize is awarded in three parts: the first is paid directly to the candidate; another third is paid to the candidate's institution to fund research expenses; and the final third is paid on publication of a survey paper in the winner's field in a major mathematics journal.
The prize has been awarded to many well-known mathematicians, including
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...
and
Sir William Hodge. The first female recipient, in 2002, was
Susan Howson, then a lecturer at the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948.
Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...
, for her work on
number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...
and
elliptic curves
In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a Smoothness, smooth, Projective variety, projective, algebraic curve of Genus of an algebraic curve, genus one, on which there is a specified point . An elliptic curve is defined over a field (mathematics), ...
.
Subject area
* 2015–16: Applied analysis
* 2016–17: Statistical analysis of big data
* 2017–18: The mathematics of astronomy and cosmology
* 2018–19: The mathematics of networks
Partial list of prize winners
The complete list of prize winners can be found on the Adams Prize webpage, on the University of Cambridge website. The following partial list is compiled from internet sources:
See also
*
List of mathematics awards
References
External links
*
{{Mathematics in the United Kingdom
Mathematical awards and prizes of the University of Cambridge
Awards established in 1848
British science and technology awards
Early career awards