The Smith's Prize is a prize awarded to research students in theoretical Physics, mathematics and applied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England. Theoretical physics employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics in an attempt to explain experimental data taken of the natural world. ... Applied mathematics is a branch of mathematics that concerns itself with the mathematical techniques typically used in the application of mathematical knowledge to other domains. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... This article is about the city in England. ...

Establishment of the annual prize (awarded every year with the exception of 1917), to be divided between the two junior Bachelors of Arts who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy, was founded by bequest of Robert Smith upon his death in 1768, having by his will left £3500 South Sea Company stock to the University, a portion of the interest from which was to be dedicated to the prize. Originally the Smith’s Prize was based on written examinations but from 1885 it was awarded for the best essay. The Rayleigh Prize was an additional prize first awarded in 1911. Robert Smith (1689 - February 2, 1768) was an English mathematician. ... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Hogarthian image of the South Sea Bubble by Edward Matthew Ward, Tate Gallery More well known than The South Sea Company is perhaps the South Sea Bubble (1711 - September 1720) which is the name given to the economic bubble that occurred through overheated speculation in the company shares during 1720. ...

Some past recipients

• 1809 - Edward Hall Alderson
• 1823 - G. B. Airy
• 1841 - George Gabriel Stokes
• 1841 – G. G. Stokes
• 1842 – Arthur Cayley
• 1845 - William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
• 1854 - James Clerk Maxwell
• 1865 – J. W. L. Strutt (Lord Rayleigh)
• 1880 - J. J. Thomson
• 1896 – E. T. Whittaker
• 1898 - Richard Cockburn Maclaurin
• 1901 - G. H. Hardy
• 1901 – James Jeans
• 1905 – Harry Bateman
• 1907 - Arthur Stanley Eddington
• 1908 – J. E. Littlewood
• 1936 - Alan Turing
• 1938 - Fred Hoyle
• 1950 - Abdus Salam
• 1967 - Stephen Watson [1]
• 1971 - Douglas C. Heggie.
• 2008 - Miguel Paulos

Baron Alderson Sir Edward Hall Alderson (baptised 10 September 1787 - 27 January 1857) was an English lawyer and judge whose many judgments on commercial law helped to shape the emerging British capitalism of the Victorian era. ... Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet (13 August 1819–1 February 1903) was an Irish mathematician and physicist, who at Cambridge made important contributions to fluid dynamics (including the Navier-Stokes equations), optics, and mathematical physics (including Stokes theorem). ... Arthur Cayley (August 16, 1821 - January 26, 1895) was a British mathematician. ... For other persons named William Thomson, see William Thomson (disambiguation). ... James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. ... Sir Joseph John “J.J.” Thomson, OM, FRS (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel laureate, credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer. ... Edmund Taylor Whittaker (24 October 1873 - 24 March 1956) was an English mathematician, who contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. ... Richard Cockburn Maclaurin () (1870 - 1920), was a U.S. educator and physicist. ... G. H. Hardy Professor Godfrey Harold Hardy FRS (February 7, 1877 – December 1, 1947) was a prominent English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. ... Sir James Hopwood Jeans (born Ormskirk, September 11, 1877, died Dorking, September 16, 1946) was a British physicist, astronomer and mathematician who was the first to propose the theory of continuous creation of matter in the universe. ... Harry Bateman (May 29, 1882 Manchester, England - January 21, 1946 Pasadena California USA) was a leading English mathematician. ... One of Sir Arthur Stanley Eddingtons papers announced Einsteins theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world. ... John Edensor Littlewood (June 9, 1885 - September 6, 1977) was a British mathematician. ... Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS (23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, logician, and cryptographer. ... Sir Frederick Hoyle, FRS, (born on June 24, 1915 in Gilstead, Yorkshire, England – August 20, 2001 in Bournemouth, England)[1] was a British astronomer, he was educated at Bingley Grammar School and notable for a number of his theories that run counter to current astronomical opinion, and a writer of... For other uses, see Abdus Salam (disambiguation). ... Stephen Watson (1955-) is a South African poet. ...

External links

• The Smith's Prize at Cambridge University by John Nuttall

References

A Corrective to the Spirit of too Exclusively Pure Mathematics: Robert Smith (1689 - 1768) and his Prizes at Cambridge University, June Barrow-Green, Annals of Science, 56 (1999), 271 - 316