The Cunningham Medal is the most prestigious award conferred by the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
(RIA), the premier
learned society
A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...
of
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. It is awarded once every three years for, "Outstanding contributions to scholarship and the objectives of the Academy". The award was initiated in 1796, and can be shared by up to 3 recipients. It is regarded as one of the leading awards for Irish scientists and researchers, and receiving it allowed the recipient to join the institute as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), as outlined in the Academy's resolution.
The awarding of the medal was suspended between 1885 and 1989, and was resumed in 1990. It is now given only to senior members of the Royal Irish Academy, and consists of a gold medal containing the engraved image of
Timothy Cunningham, the London-based barrister who founded the award to promote scientific learning in Ireland.
Notable recipients of the award include Sir
William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who made numerous major contributions to abstract algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathema ...
,
Humphrey Lloyd,
George Salmon, Sir
Howard Grubb,
Robert Mallet,
John Birmingham, and
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is a Northern Irish physicist who, as a doctoral student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. This discovery later earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, but she was not ...
.
History
The original medal was cast by Irish medallist
William Mossop. It was which was established in 1796 at the bequest of barrister
Timothy Cunningham of
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
. After a period of uncertainty and experimentation regarding the terms and conditions of the award, it was agreed in 1848 that the medals would be open to the authors of works or essays in the areas of Science, Polite Literature and Antiquities, published in Ireland or about Irish subjects. After 1885, the academy stopped giving the award, but it was revived in 1989 for the bicentennial of Cunningham's gift.
[
]
Recipients
The following persons have been awarded the Cunningham Medal:William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who made numerous major contributions to abstract algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathema ...
(mathematics)
*1838: James MacCullagh
James MacCullagh (1809 – 24 October 1847) was an Irish mathematician and scientist. He served as the Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin beginning in 1835, and in 1843, he was appointed as the Erasmus Smith' ...
(physics)
*1839: James Apjohn (physics); George Petrie (history)
*1843: Robert Kane (chemistry)
*1848: Samuel Haughton (mathematics); Sir William Rowan Hamilton
Sir William Rowan Hamilton (4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who made numerous major contributions to abstract algebra, classical mechanics, and optics. His theoretical works and mathema ...
(mathematics); Edward Hincks (orientalist); John O'Donovan (history)
*1851: John Hewitt Jellett (mathematics)
*1858: Edward Joshua Cooper (astronomy); George Salmon (mathematics); Charles William Wall (literary criticism); William Reeves (history)
*1862: Robert Mallet (seismology); Humphrey Lloyd (astronomy); John Thomas Gilbert (history); Whitley Stokes (linguistics)
*1873: Sir William Wilde (polymath, father of Oscar Wilde)
*1878: George James Allman
George James Allman Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE (181224 November 1898) was an Irish ecologist, botanist and zoologist who served as Emeritus Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh ...
(natural history); Edward Dowden
Edward Dowden (; 3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet.
Biography
He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edi ...
(literary criticism); Aquilla Smith
Aquilla Smith (28 April 1806 – 23 March 1890) was a highly regarded medical doctor, numismatist and archaeologist. He represented the Irish College of Physicians on the General Medical Council for almost forty years, and was an authority on Ir ...
(numismatics); John Casey (mathematics)
*1879: Robert Stawell Ball (mathematics); William Archer (natural history)
*1881: Howard Grubb (astronomy)
*1883: Edward Perceval Wright (editing Proceedings of RIA)
*1884: John Birmingham (astronomy)
*1885: John Christian Malet (mathematics)
''Award suspended''
*1989: Frank Mitchell (natural history)
*2001: Daniel Joseph Bradley (physics); Maurice Craig (architectural history); Sir Bernard Crossland (engineering); David Beers Quinn (history)
*2005: Denis L. Weaire (physics)
*2008: Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
(poetry)
*2011: John V McCanny (microelectronics)
*2014: Patrick Honohan (economics)
*2017: Dervilla M. X. Donnelly (chemistry)
*2020: Nicholas Canny (history)
*2023: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is a Northern Irish physicist who, as a doctoral student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. This discovery later earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, but she was not ...
(astronomy)
References
{{reflist
External links
Cunningham Medal awardees
(Royal Irish Academy)
Royal Irish Academy
Academic awards
Irish awards