Prizes

In addition to the new Taylor and Francis Early Career Research Prize, the BSHM has three established prize competitions.

The Neumann prize was established in honour of Peter Neumann, a longstanding supporter of and contributor to the BSHM. The prize is awarded for a book in English (including books in translation) dealing with the history of mathematics and aimed at a broad audience. There is no further restriction on subject matter, nor on the nationality of the author or the country of publication.

The prize of £1000 is awarded every two years. In 2017 it was awarded to Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman for their study of Claude Shannon, A Mind at Play (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

The BSHM Undergraduate Essay Prize is awarded annually for an essay by an undergraduate student on any topic in the history of mathematics. The winner receives £100, free BSHM membership for three years, and is invited to give a talk at the BSHM Research in Progress meeting.

The essay may be on any topic within the history of mathematics and should be no more than 2500 words (excluding references). The competition is open to any person who is enrolled as an undergraduate in a UK or Irish university. The winner of the 2017–18 Essay Prize was Kamilla Rekvenyi of the University of St Andrews, for her essay, ‘Paul Erdös’ Mathematics as a Social Activity’.

The Schools Plus Competition, run annually in conjunction with Plus magazine (plus.maths.org), is open to all young people aged 11–15 and 16–19 who are in secondary education. Each year a call for entries is published on the BSHM website announcing a theme; entries in the past have included articles, short videos and multi-media projects. A number of monetary prizes are awarded, depending upon the number and quality of entries.

The winners in 2018 were Pippa Wakelin from Kendrick School in Reading, who won in the 11–15 category for her paper on the History and Uses of Infinity, and Charles Austin, from Norwich School in Norwich, who won in the 16–19 category for his paper on Calculating Risk: Where would we be without the mathematics of risk?