The Hirst Prize and Lectureship is a biennial prize, jointly awarded by the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

(LMS) and the

British Society for the History of Mathematics The British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM) was founded in 1971 to promote research into the history of mathematics at all levels and to further the use of the history of mathematics in education. The BSHM is concerned with all per ...

(BSHM). The prize recognises original and innovative contributions to the history of mathematics by an individual winner or by joint winners. The prize was first awarded in 2015 (solely by the LMS) as part of the LMS's 150th anniversary celebrations. The prize is named in honour of

Thomas Archer Hirst Thomas Archer Hirst FRS (22 April 1830 – 16 February 1892) was a 19th-century English mathematician, specialising in geometry. He was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1883. Life Thomas Hirst was born in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire, ...

, who was from 1872 to 1874 the fifth President of the LMS. Any mathematician or historian of mathematics is eligible for the prize — except for previous winners of the

De Morgan Medal The De Morgan Medal is a prize for outstanding contribution to mathematics, awarded by the London Mathematical Society. The Society's most prestigious award, it is given in memory of Augustus De Morgan, who was the first President of the society ...

, LMS's Pólya Prize,

Fröhlich Prize The Fröhlich Prize of the London Mathematical Society is awarded in even numbered years in memory of Albrecht Fröhlich. The prize is awarded for original and extremely innovative work in any branch of mathematics. According to the regulations ...

Naylor Prize and Lectureship The Naylor Prize and lectureship in Applied Mathematics is a prize of the London Mathematical Society awarded every two years in memory of Dr V.D. Naylor. Only those who reside in the United Kingdom are eligible for the prize. The "grounds for aw ...

Senior Whitehead Prize The Senior Whitehead Prize of the London Mathematical Society (LMS) is now awarded in odd numbered years in memory of John Henry Constantine Whitehead, president of the LMS between 1953 and 1955. The Prize is awarded to mathematicians normally r ...

, Senior Anne Bennett Prize, or the Christopher Zeeman Medal. In the year for awarding the prize, the members of the Hirst Prize Committee, the members of the LMS and BSHM Councils are also ineligible. The administration of the Hirst Prize alternates between the LMS and the BSHM offices, but the LMS alone organises the Hirst Lectureship. The lecture normally takes place in the year following the award of the Hirst Prize, and the venue for the lecture is chosen by the winner (or winners) of the Hirst Prize.

Recipients

* 2015:

Edmund F. Robertson Edmund Frederick Robertson (born 1 June 1943) is a British mathematician who is a professor emeritus of pure mathematics at the University of St Andrews. Work Robertson is one of the creators of the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, a ...

and John Joseph O'Connor (joint winners) ** 2016 lecture: ''History of Mathematics: Some Personal Thoughts'' * 2018:

Jeremy Gray Jeremy John Gray (born 25 April 1947) is an English mathematician primarily interested in the history of mathematics. Biography Gray studied mathematics at the University of Oxford from 1966 to 1969, and then at Warwick University, obtaining h ...

** 2019 lecture: ''Jesse Douglas, Minimal Surfaces, and the first Fields Medal'' * 2021:

Karine Chemla Karine Chemla (born 8 February 1957) is a French historian of mathematics and sinologist who works as a director of research at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). She is also a senior fellow at the New York University In ...

** 2022 lecture: ''Algebraic work with operations in China, 1st century—13th century'' * 2023:

Erhard Scholz Erhard Scholz (born 1947) is a German historian of mathematics with interests in the history of mathematics in the 19th and 20th centuries, historical perspective on the philosophy of mathematics and science, and Hermann Weyl's geometrical methods ...

** 2024 lecture: ''From Grassmann complements to Hodge duality''https://www.lms.ac.uk/events/lms-spitalfields-hirst-lecture-2024

References

{{Awards of the London Mathematical Society Awards established in 2015 History of science awards Mathematics awards Awards of the London Mathematical Society British lecture series 2015 establishments in the United Kingdom Recurring events established in 2015 Science lecture series Biennial events Mathematical events