The Bowdoin Prizes are prestigious awards given annually to

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

undergraduate and graduate students. From the income of the bequest of Governor

James Bowdoin James Bowdoin II ( ; August 7, 1726 – November 6, 1790) was an American political and intellectual leader from Boston, Massachusetts, during the American Revolution and the following decade. He initially gained fame and influence as a wealth ...

, AB 1745, prizes are offered to students at the university in graduate and undergraduate categories for essays in the English language, in the natural sciences, in Greek and in Latin. Each winner of a Bowdoin Prize receives, in addition to $3,500, a medal, a certificate and their name printed in the commencement program.

Notable recipients

The award was established in 1791, and past winners include (with year of award and professional highlights): *

Jared Sparks Jared Sparks (May 10, 1789 – March 14, 1866) was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard College from 1849 to 1853. Biography Born in Willington, Connecticut, Sparks studied in the common s ...

, 1815, historian and president of Harvard *

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

, 1820 and 1821, essayist and poet *

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American ...

, 1830 and 1832, politician and US Senator *

Jones Very Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare, and many of his poems were Shakespearean ...

, 1835 and 1836, Transcendentalist essayist and poet *

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast'' a ...

, 1837, lawyer and politician *

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in ''Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...

, 1838 and 1839, author and historian * Charles L. Flint, 1849, lawyer, horticulturalist, president of what is now University of Massachusetts Amherst * Horatio Alger Jr., 1851, prolific author of "rags to riches" novels *

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fran ...

, 1858, historian and author *

James C. Fernald James Champlin Fernald (August 18, 1838 – November 11, 1918)Richard Theodore Greener Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. In 1870, he became the first black undergraduate at Harvard University to receive ...

, 1870, statesman and dean of

Howard University School of Law Howard University School of Law (Howard Law or HUSL) is the law school of Howard University, a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is one of the oldest law schools in the country and the old ...

George Lyman Kittredge George Lyman Kittredge (February 28, 1860 – July 23, 1941) was a professor of English literature at Harvard University. His scholarly edition of the works of William Shakespeare was influential in the early 20th century. He was also involved in ...

, 1881 and 1882, educator and scholar in English literature * Alain LeRoy Locke, 1907, first African-American Rhodes Scholar, academic, writer, and "Father of the Harlem Renaissance" * R. Nathaniel Dett, 1920, composer *

Henry Friendly Henry Jacob Friendly (July 3, 1903 – March 11, 1986) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge, federal circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 to 1986, and as the court's Ch ...

, judge *

George Frazier George Frazier may refer to: * George Frazier (manager) (1861–1913), American baseball manager * George Frazier (pitcher) (1954–2023), American baseball pitcher * George Frazier (journalist) (1911–1974), American journalist See also * George ...

, 1933, journalist *

Nathan Pusey Nathan Marsh Pusey (; April 4, 1907 – November 14, 2001) was an American academic. Originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, Pusey won a scholarship to Harvard University out of high school and went on to earn bachelor's, master's, and doctora ...

, 1934, president of Harvard * Daniel J. Boorstin, 1934, Rhodes Scholar, historian, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize *

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (February 29, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. Nemerov was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of English and Distinguished Poet in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. He was twice ...

, 1940, poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award *

I. Bernard Cohen I. Bernard Cohen (1 March 1914 – 20 June 2003) was an American historian of science. He taught at Harvard University for 60 years, 1942–2002, becoming the first chair of its Department of the History of Science when it was established in 19 ...

, 1941, historian of science *

Robert Galambos Robert Carl Galambos (April 20, 1914 – June 18, 2010) was an American neuroscientist whose pioneering research demonstrated how bats use echolocation for navigation purposes, as well as studies on how sound is processed in the brain. Biogra ...

, 1941, neuroscientist * Arthur Kinoy, 1941, attorney and civil rights leader * Constantine Cavarnos, 1947, teacher, author, monk * Henri Dorra, 1949, art historian *

Christopher Lasch Robert Christopher Lasch (June 1, 1932 – February 14, 1994) was an American historian and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiveness with ...

, 1954, professor, author, historian, and social critic *

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, 1954, writer * Allen G. Debus, 1957 and 1958, historian of science *

Larry Siedentop Sir Larry Alan Siedentop (24 May 1936 – 13 June 2024) was an American-born British political philosopher with a special interest in 19th-century French liberalism. He was the author of ''Democracy in Europe'' (2000) and ''Inventing the Indiv ...

, 1959, Marshall Scholar, political philosopher *

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...

, 1960, Palestinian essayist and academic * James Samuel Gordon, 1961 and 1962, author, psychiatrist, and mind-body medicine expert *

Patrick T. Riley Patrick Thomas Riley (October 27, 1941 – March 10, 2015) was Michael Oakeshott Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is notable for his translations of the political writings of Gottfried Leibniz and his resea ...

, 1966 and 1967, political science professor *

Robert Kirshner Robert P. Kirshner (born August 15, 1949) is an American astronomer, Chief Program Officer for Science for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Clowes Research Professor of Science at Harvard University. Kirshner has worked in several ...

, 1970, astrophysicist *

Paul Starr Paul Elliot Starr (born May 12, 1949) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He is also the co-editor (with Robert Kuttner) and co-founder (with Kuttner and Robert Reich) of ''The American Prospect'', a notable li ...

, 1974, professor of sociology and public affairs * Ralph Jay Hexter, 1974, professor of classics and comparative literature and provost of UC Davis * James D. Weinrich, 1975, sex researcher and psychobiologist * Robert W. Brooks, 1975, mathematician * John Glover Roberts Jr., 1976, Chief Justice of the United States * Paul Alan Cox, 1978 and 1981, ethnobotanist * Richard H. Ebright, 1979, molecular and microbiologist * Mark W. Moffett, 1986, entomologist * Jonathan Veitch, 1988, historian and president of Occidental College * Nicholas A. Christakis, 1988, physician and sociologist * Cyrus Patell, 1991, literary and cultural critic *

Faith Salie Faith Coley Salie (born April 14, 1971) is an American journalist, writer, actress, comedian, television, radio, and podcast host. She is a contributor to ''CBS Sunday Morning'' and a panelist on NPR’s '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!''. She host ...

, 1992, Rhodes Scholar, actress, and media personality * William Pannapacker, 1995 and 1999, academic and journalist * Mark Greif, 1997, Marshall Scholar, academic and literary critic *

Joe Roman Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, marine ecologist, and author of the books ''Whale'', '' Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act'', and ''Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World''. His conservation research includ ...

, 2000, author and conservation biologist *

Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy (born August 9, 1985) is an American entrepreneur and politician. He founded Roivant Sciences, a Biotechnology, biotech Pharmaceutical industry, pharmaceutical company in 2014 and was its Chief executive officer, CEO ...

, 2007, entrepreneur in the healthcare and technology sectors, political commentator, a ''New York Times'' bestselling author, and US presidential candidate

References

{{Reflist Awards by university and college in the United States Harvard University