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 (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, 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, Naylor Prize and Lectureship,

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