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Sylvester Medal facts for kids

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The Sylvester Medal is a special bronze medal given by the Royal Society in London. It's awarded to people who do amazing work in mathematics. Along with the medal, the winner also gets a £1,000 prize!

This award is named after James Joseph Sylvester, a famous math professor at the University of Oxford in the 1880s. Friends of Sylvester, especially Raphael Meldola, suggested the award after Sylvester passed away in 1897. The first medal was given out in 1901.

At first, the medal was awarded every three years. It came with a prize of about £900. But starting in 2009, the Royal Society decided to give it out every two years instead. Now, it's meant for scientists who are earlier in their careers, not just those who are already very famous. A special committee at the Royal Society chooses the winner. This committee handles awards for physical sciences, like math.

As of 2021, 45 medals have been awarded. Most winners (35) have been from the United Kingdom. Two winners were from France and two from the United States. Other winners came from New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Russia, Italy, Sweden, and South Africa. So far, three women have won the medal: Mary Cartwright in 1964, Dusa McDuff in 2018, and Frances Kirwan in 2021.

Amazing Math Winners

Year Name Nationality Why they won
1901 Poincaré, HenriHenri Poincaré French For his important work in pure and applied mathematics, physics, and how things move in space. He helped create chaos theory and topology.
1904 Cantor, GeorgGeorg Cantor German He invented set theory, which is a basic part of mathematics. He studied infinite sets and showed that some infinities are "bigger" than others.
1907 Wirtinger, WilhelmWilhelm Wirtinger Austrian For his work on functions, geometry, algebra, and number theory.
1910 Baker, Henry FrederickHenry Frederick Baker British For his work in algebraic geometry and his contributions to Lie groups. He also helped publish James Joseph Sylvester's math works.
1913 Glaisher, James Whitbread LeeJames Whitbread Lee Glaisher British For his work in number theory and the study of elliptic functions.
1916 Darboux, Jean GastonJean Gaston Darboux French For his important contributions to geometry and mathematical analysis.
1919 MacMahon, Percy AlexanderPercy Alexander MacMahon British For his work on how numbers can be divided into parts and his studies in enumerative combinatorics. He also created fun math puzzles.
1922 Levi-Civita, TullioTullio Levi-Civita Italian For his major work in many math areas, especially tensor calculus and its use in theory of relativity. He also studied how things move.
1925 Whitehead, Alfred NorthAlfred North Whitehead British For his work on the basic ideas of mathematics. He also wrote about algebra, logic, and philosophy.
1928 Young, William HenryWilliam Henry Young British For his work on the theory of functions, including measure theory and Fourier series.
1931 Whittaker, Edmund TaylorEdmund Taylor Whittaker British For his important work in both pure and applied mathematics, and his contributions to mathematical physics.
1934 Russell, BertrandBertrand Russell British For his excellent work on the basic ideas of mathematics. He was also a famous philosopher and logician.
1937 Love, Augustus Edward HoughAugustus Edward Hough Love British For his work on the math of elasticity (how things stretch and bend) and how liquids move. He also studied waves and tides.
1940 Hardy, Godfrey HaroldGodfrey Harold Hardy British For his important work in many areas of pure mathematics.
1943 Littlewood, John EdensorJohn Edensor Littlewood British For his math discoveries and deep understanding in the analytical theory of numbers.
1946 Watson, George NevilleGeorge Neville Watson British For his great contributions to pure mathematics, especially in mathematical analysis.
1949 Mordell, Louis JoelLouis Joel Mordell British For his excellent research in pure mathematics, especially his discoveries in number theory.
1952 Besicovitch, Abram SamoilovitchAbram Samoilovitch Besicovitch Russian For his outstanding work on functions and the theory of measure and integration.
1955 Titchmarsh, Edward CharlesEdward Charles Titchmarsh British For his important research on the Riemann zeta-function, Fourier analysis, and number theory.
1958 Newman, MaxMax Newman British For his great contributions to topology, Boolean algebras, and mathematical logic.
1961 Hall, PhilipPhilip Hall British For his important research in algebra.
1964 Cartwright, MaryMary Cartwright British For her great contributions to analysis and the theory of functions.
1967 Davenport, HaroldHarold Davenport British For his many important contributions to number theory.
1970 Temple, George Frederick JamesGeorge Frederick James Temple British For his many great contributions to applied mathematics.
1973 Cassels, John William ScottJohn William Scott Cassels British For his many important contributions to number theory.
1976 Kendall, David GeorgeDavid George Kendall British For his many great contributions to probability theory and its uses.
1979 Higman, GrahamGraham Higman British For his important and influential work on the theory of groups.
1982 Adams, John FrankJohn Frank Adams British For solving several big problems in algebraic topology and creating new methods to do so.
1985 Thompson, John GriggsJohn Griggs Thompson American For his basic work that helped classify all finite simple groups.
1988 Wall, Charles T. C.Charles T. C. Wall British For his contributions to the topology of manifolds and related areas in algebra and geometry.
1991 Roth, Klaus FriedrichKlaus Friedrich Roth British For his many contributions to number theory, especially solving a famous problem about approximating numbers.
1994 Whittle, PeterPeter Whittle New Zealand For his major contributions to time series analysis, optimisation theory, and applied probability theory.
1997 Coxeter, Harold Scott MacDonaldHarold Scott MacDonald Coxeter British/Canadian For his achievements in geometry, especially how shapes and patterns are arranged in space.
2000 Hitchin, Nigel JamesNigel James Hitchin British For his important contributions to differential geometry and how it connects with physics.
2003 Carleson, LennartLennart Carleson Swedish For his deep and basic contributions to mathematics in the field of analysis and complex dynamics.
2006 Swinnerton-Dyer, PeterPeter Swinnerton-Dyer British For his basic work in arithmetic geometry and his many contributions to the theory of ordinary differential equations.
2009 Ball, John M.John M. Ball British For his important work in mechanics and nonlinear analysis, and for encouraging math research in developing countries.
2010 Segal, GraemeGraeme Segal British For his very influential work on topology, geometry, and quantum field theory, connecting physics and pure mathematics.
2012 Toland, John FrancisJohn Francis Toland British/Irish For his original theorems and amazing discoveries in nonlinear partial differential equations, including how they apply to water waves.
2014 Green, BenBen Green British For his famous result on prime numbers and other spectacular theorems he proved.
2016 Gowers, TimothyTimothy Gowers British For his groundbreaking results in the theory of Banach spaces, combinatorics, and additive number theory.
2018 McDuff, DusaDusa McDuff British For leading the development of the new field of symplectic geometry and topology.
2019 Sarnak, PeterPeter Sarnak American/South African For his amazing contributions across number theory, combinatorics, analysis, and geometry.
2020 Birch, Bryan JohnBryan John Birch British For his work on the theory of elliptic curves.
2021 Kirwan, FrancesFrances Kirwan British For her research in algebraic geometry and its connections to symplectic geometry and topology.
2022 Heath-Brown, RogerRoger Heath-Brown British For his many important contributions to studying prime numbers and solving equations with whole numbers.
2023 Reid, MilesMiles Reid British For his very creative research and insights into higher-dimensional algebraic geometry, and for helping the community of algebraic geometers.

See also

  • List of mathematics awards
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