The John von Neumann Lecture
Principal Guideline
This prize, established in 1959, is awarded for outstanding and distinguished contributions to the field of applied mathematical sciences and for the effective communication of these ideas to the community. The recipient will receive a monetary award and will present a survey lecture at the annual meeting.
Prize Committee
The prize committee will consist of the President, the Past President or President Elect, the Vice President-at-Large, and two SIAM members appointed by the President. These members will serve rotating two-year appointments.
The committee should complete the choice of The John von Neumann Lecturer at least nine months before the date of the annual meeting at which the prize will be awarded and at which the lecture will be given.
If the committee reports that no prize can be awarded, then the committee rotation will continue for the next year.
The committee will determine its own rules of operation; however, the committee is strongly encouraged to solicit suggestions for nominations from other members of the scientific community.
Selection Procedures
Eligibility
The award can be presented to any member of the scientific community who meets the general guideline of the prize description.
Nominations
The Executive Committee of the Council must be notified of the final nomination, and the Vice President for Programs must be informed of acceptance by The John von Neumann lecturer. The nomination must be accompanied by a written justification and a citation of about 100 words that can be read by the President when introducing the lecturer.
Notification of Selection
The President will notify the recipient of the prize not later than six months before the annual meeting and will request the recipient give a general audience review lecture at the annual meeting.
Prize Award Date
The prize is given normally every year at the annual meeting of SIAM. The prize need not be given in years in which no suitable candidate can be found.
Description of the Award
The prize will consist of a $5,000 monetary award.
As noted above the recipient will present The John von Neumann Lecture.
Prize Fund
The fund was started with contributions from IBM Corporation and other organizations. It has been augmented by SIAM.
Award Presentation
The award is presented by the President. The recipient is introduced by the President.
Prize History
The John von Neumann lecturers:
- 1960 Lars Valerian Ahlfors
- 1961 Mark Kac
- 1962 Jean Leray
- 1963 Stanislaw M. Ulam
- 1964 Solomon Lefschetz
- 1965 Freeman J. Dyson
- 1966 Eugene P. Wigner
- 1967 Chia-Chiao Lin
- 1968 Peter D. Lax
- 1969 George F. Carrier
- 1970 James H. Wilkinson
- 1971 Paul A. Samuelson
- 1974 Jule Charney
- 1975 Sir James Lighthill
- 1976 Rene Thom
- 1977 Kenneth J. Arrow
- 1978 Peter Henrici
- 1979 Kurt O. Friedrichs
- 1980 Keith Stewartson
- 1981 Garrett Birkhoff
- 1982 David Slepian
- 1983 Joseph B. Keller
- 1984 Jurgen Moser
- 1985 John W. Tukey
- 1986 Jacques-Louis Lions
- 1987 Richard M. Karp
- 1988 Germund G. Dahlquist
- 1989 Stephen Smale
- 1990 Andrew J. Majda
- 1992 R. Tyrrell Rockafellar
- 1994 Martin D. Kruskal
- 1996 Carl de Boor
- 1997 William (Velvel) Kahan
- 1998 Olga Ladyzhenskaya
- 1999 Charles S. Peskin
- 2000 Persi W. Diaconis
- 2001 David L. Donoho
- 2002 Eric S. Lander
- 2003 Heinz-Otto Kreiss
- 2004 Alan C. Newell
- 2005 Jerrold E. Marsden
- 2006 George C. Papanicolaou
- 2007 Nancy Kopell
- 2008 David I. Gottlieb (The Effect of Local Features on Global Expansions)
- 2009 Franco Brezzi (Compatible Discretizations of PDE's)
- 2010 Bernd Sturmfels (Algebra: From Linear to Non-Linear)
- 2011 Ingrid Daubechies
- 2012 Sir John Ball (Liquid Crystals for Mathematicians)
- 2013 Stanley J. Osher (What Sparsity and l1 Optimization Can Do For You)
- 2014 Leslie F. Greengard (Fast, Accurate Tools for Physical Modeling in Complex Geometry)
- 2015 Jennifer Tour Chayes
- 2016 Donald E. Knuth (Satisfiability and Combinatorics)
- 2017 Bernard J. Matkowsky (Singular Perturbations in Noisy Dynamical Systems)
- 2018 Charles Van Loan
The next award will be made in 2018.
Approved by the SIAM Council and Board in 1959. Amended by the SIAM Board and Council, July 2005.
Selection Committee
Click here to see a list of selection committee members by year.
