Rumford Prize
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Founded in 1796, the Rumford Prize, awarded by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is one of the oldest scientific prizes in the United States. The prize recognizes contributions by scientists to the fields of heat and light. These terms are widely interpreted; awards range from discoveries in thermodynamics to improvements in the construction of steam boilers.
The award was created through the endowment of US$5,000 to the Academy by Benjamin Thompson, who held the title "Count Rumford of the United Kingdom", in 1796.[1] The terms state that the award be given to "authors of discoverie's in any part of the Continent of America, or in any of the American islands." Although it was founded in 1796, the first prize was not given until 1839, as the academy could not find anyone who, in their judgement, deserved the award. The academy found the terms of the prize to be too restrictive, and in 1832 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts allowed the Academy to change some of the provisions; mainly, the award was to be given annually instead of biennially, and the Academy was allowed to award the prize as it saw fit, whereas before it had to give it yearly.[2] The first award was given to Robert Hare, for his invention of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, in 1839. Twenty-three years elapsed before the award was given a second time, to John Ericsson.[3]
The prize is awarded whenever the academy recognizes a significant achievement in either of the two fields. Awardees receive a gold-and-silver medal.[1] Previous prizewinners include Thomas Alva Edison, for his investigations in electric lighting; Enrico Fermi, for his studies of radiation theory and nuclear energy; and Charles H. Townes, for his development of the laser. One man, Samuel Pierpont Langley, has won both the Rumford Prize and the related Rumford Medal (the European equivalent of the Rumford Prize), both in 1886. The most recent award was given in 2021 to Charles L. Bennett for his contributions to cosmology. The prize has been given to researchers outside of the United States only twice—once to John Stanley Plaskett, from British Columbia, and once to a group of Canadian scientists "for their work in the field of long-baseline interferometry."[4]
List of recipients
Source: American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Past Prizes
| Year | Name | Location[a] | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1839 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe |
| 1862 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | His work improved the field of heat management, but the award was specifically for his invention of the caloric engine of 1858. |
| 1865 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Heat management. He was awarded especially for his contributions towards a "cannon of large caliber, and great strength and endurance". |
| 1866 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Improved refracting telescopes |
| 1869 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Providence, Rhode Island | For improving the steam engine |
| 1871 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Towards his concern for safer steam boilers |
| 1873 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | For improving the "processes and methods" of astronomical photography |
| 1875 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | For his work towards apprehending radiant energy |
| 1880 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New Haven, Connecticut | Founded the field of chemical thermodynamics |
| 1883 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Baltimore, Maryland | For his research in light and heat |
| 1886 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Allegheny, Philadelphia | For his work towards the understanding of radiant energy |
| 1888 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cleveland, Ohio | Measured the velocity of light, and contribution towards the motion of the luminiferous ether, and absolute determination of the wavelengths of light |
| 1891 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For his work on stellar photometry and stellar spectra |
| 1895 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Orange, New Jersey | For his investigations in electric lighting |
| 1898 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Allegheny, Pennsylvania | For the applications of the spectroscope, and especially his investigations of nebulae and the physical contents of Saturn's rings |
| 1899 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cleveland, Ohio | For the development of the electric arc lamp |
| 1900 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Providence, Rhode Island | For his heat research |
| 1901 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Lynn, Massachusetts | For his work in welding and lighting |
| 1902 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Chicago, Illinois | For his investigations in solar and stellar physics and for the invention of the spectro-heliograph |
| 1904 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | For his research on radiation, radiation pressure, stellar heat, and the infrared spectrum |
| 1907 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Niagara Falls, New York | For the application of the electric furnace to the production of carborundum and graphite |
| 1909 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Baltimore, Maryland | For light-related discoveries, including the optical properties of sodium and other metallic vapors |
| 1910 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | For his improvements to the steam turbine |
| 1911 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Boston, Massachusetts | For his work in thermometry, and the development of new fixed points on the scale.[b] |
| 1912 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Woodcliff-on-Hudson, New Jersey | For his inventions in color photography and photoengraving |
| 1913 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Urbana, Illinois | For the development of the selenium photometer and its application to scientific problems |
| 1914 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Schenectady, New York | For his invention of ductile tungsten |
| 1915 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Washington, D.C. | For his research in solar radiation |
| 1917 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For his high-pressure thermodynamic breakthroughs |
| 1918 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Awarded for his research on short-wave and long-wave wavelengths |
| 1920 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Schenectady, New York | "For his research in thermionic and allied phenomena" |
| 1925 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Princeton, New Jersey | Awarded for his research in solar radiation |
| 1926 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Chicago, Illinois | Awarded for his research in Roentgen rays |
| 1928 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Ithaca, New York | "For his research in spectrophotometry" |
| 1930 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Victoria, British Columbia | For his astronomical spectrographic research[c] |
| 1931 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | He was awarded the medal for thermionics and spectroscopic research. |
| 1933 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For his work with the luminosity of stars and galaxies |
| 1937 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Washington, D.C. | For his improvements in the measurement of heat and light |
| 1939 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Belmont, Massachusetts | "For pioneering improvements in spectroscopics" |
| 1941 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Princeton, New Jersey | Awarded for the creation of the iconoscope and other related devices |
| 1943 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Rochester, New York | For his contributions to photography |
| 1945 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For his inventions related to the application of polarized light |
| 1947 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Princeton, New Jersey | For his research in bioluminescence |
| 1949 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Pasadena, California | For his work on the identification of nebulium and for other outstanding works |
| 1951 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Montclair, New Jersey | For his research in the field of optics |
| 1953 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Chicago, Illinois | For his investigations in electromagnetic radiation and nuclear energy |
| 1953 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Stanford, California | Awarded for studying the hydrogen spectrum |
| 1953 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New Haven, Connecticut | For his investigations in thermodynamics related to transportation |
| 1955 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Chicago, Illinois | For his studies in the investigation of photosynthesis |
| 1957 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Williams Bay, Wisconsin | For his investigations of the radiative energy balance in stars |
| 1959 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For identifying the biochemical basis of vision |
| 1961 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | New York, New York | "For his development of the laser" |
| 1963 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Ithaca, New York | For pioneering studies in stellar nucleosynthesis |
| 1965 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For the invention of the Collins Helium Cryostat and other pioneering work |
| 1965 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Baltimore, Maryland | For his work on the molecular origin of bioluminescence |
| 1967 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Princeton, New Jersey | "For his contributions to microwave radiometry and to the understanding of atomic structure" |
| 1967 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Stanford, California | For his contributions to the study of photosynthesis |
| 1968 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Pasadena, California | For his work deducing the spectra of quasi-stellar objects |
| 1971 | MIT Group (John. A Ball, Alan H. Barrett, Bernard F. Burke, Joseph C. Carter, Patricia P. Crowther, James M. Moran Jr., Alan E. E. Rogers)
Canadian Group (Norman W. Broten, R. M. Chisholm, John A. Galt, Herbert P. Gush, Thomas H. Legg, Jack L. Locke, Charles W. McLeish, Roger S. Richards, Jui Lin Yen) NRAO–Cornell Group (Claude C. Bare, Barry G. Clark, Marshall H. Cohen, David L. Jauncey, Kenneth I. Kellermann) |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ball, Barrett, Burke, Carter, Crowther, Moran, Rogers) National Research Council (Canada) (Broten, Legg, Locke, McLeish, Richards); Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (Galt); University of Toronto (Yen); Queen's University (Chisolm); University of British Columbia (Gush)[5] National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Bare, Clark, Kellerman); Cornell University (Cohen, Jauncey)[6][7] |
"For their work in the field of long-baseline interferometry." The Rumford Committee sponsored a symposium on recent developments in the field to mark the unusual circumstances of the 1971 award;[8] it was reported in the January 14, 1972 issue of Science.[9] |
| 1973 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For pioneering the importance of symmetry in polyatomic molecules and for his active work in the field of microwave spectroscopy |
| 1976 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Cambridge, Massachusetts | For discovering the origins of cosmic radiation |
| 1980 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Urbana, Illinois | For researching the theory of, and working on the application of, fluorescence |
| 1980 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Stony Brook, New York
|
"For development of a generalized gauge invariant field theory" |
| 1985 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Seattle, Washington
|
Awarded for his work in the field of atomic spectroscopy |
| 1986 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Pasadena, California
|
For his work in developing infrared astronomy |
| 1992 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Chicago, Illinois
|
Awarded for working towards the understanding of photosynthesis |
| 1996 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Greenbelt, Maryland | For his research related to the cosmic microwave background |
| 2008 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Stanford University
|
For their efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons[10] |
| 2015 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
|
For their contributions to the field of laser technology |
| 2018 | Script error: No such module "Sort".
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Max-Planck Institute of Biophysics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stanford University Humboldt University of Berlin University of Oxford University of Würzburg |
For "their extraordinary contributions related to the invention and refinement of optogenetics."[11] |
| 2021 | Script error: No such module "Sort". | Baltimore, Maryland | For his contributions to the field of cosmology |
See also
References and notes
- [a] <templatestyles src="Citation/styles.css"/>^ In this sense, location refers to the recipient's place of work or association
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