The Taylor Prize in Mathematics is a cash prize awarded annually to an outstanding graduate student of mathematics, displaying excellence in graduate research and overall accomplishments, at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. The prize is named after James Henry Taylor, a professor of mathematics at GW from 1929 to 1958.[1]
James Henry Taylor was a mathematics professor at GW from 1929 to 1958 and then professor emeritus until his death in 1972. Several years after his death the president of the university, Lloyd H. Elliott, along with several of the professors in the Mathematics Department, including Taylor's good friend Fritz Joachim Weyl, decided to create an award in his memory.[2] Money was deposited in an account from which the prize funds would be drawn annually. The interest that builds throughout the year on the account makes up the majority of the annual prize. For example, in 1983 first year graduate student Karma Dajani won the prize, which at the time was $500 but when she won the prize again in 1986 it was worth only $300 because interest had not accumulated for as many years.[3] Thomas J. Carter became the first recipient of the prize in 1977.
The GWU bulletin simply describes the criteria for recipients of the prize as, "awarded to an outstanding mathematics graduate student."[3] Many of the thirty-four winners of the Taylor Prize have gone on to become professors of mathematics at various universities. Most have published essays and books or given lectures on their specific subjects.
| Year | Name | Current occupation |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Gabriel Montoya Vega and Guanning Zhang | NSF Postdoc at CUNY, PhD candidate at the George Washington University |
| 2021 | Dionne Ibarra | Research Fellow at Monash University[5] |
| 2020 | Rhea Palak Bakshi, Pavel Avdeyev | Junior Fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Studies at ETH Zurich,[6] PhD candidate at the George Washington University |
| 2019 | Iva Bilanovic | PhD student at the George Washington University |
| 2018 | Sujoy Mukherjee, Kai Yang | Ross Assistant Professor at Ohio State University, postdoctoral associate at Florida International University |
| 2017 | Xiao Wang | Jilin University |
| 2016 | Chong Wang | postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University |
| 2015 | Seung Yeop Yang | visiting assistant professor at the University of Denver |
| 2014 | Leah Marshall | works at the U.S. Census Bureau,[7] also a Professorial Lecturer at The George Washington University[8] |
| 2013 | Carl Hammarsten, Jing Wang | (Hammarsten) visiting assistant professor at Lafayette University[9] (Wang) assistant professor at Christian Brothers University [10] |
| 2012 | Kai Maeda, Tyler White | |
| 2010 | Forest Fisher, Michael Coleman | (Fisher) assistant professor of mathematics at Guttman Community College[11] (Coleman) works at U.S. Naval Research Laboratory,[12] also a professorial lecturer at the George Washington University [13] |
| 2009 | Radmila Sazdanovic | assistant professor at North Carolina State University |
| 2008 | Jennifer Chubb and Hillary Einziger | (Chubb) assistant professor at the University of San Francisco[14] (Einziger) educator assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati [15] |
| 2007 | Kerry Luse, Maciej Niebrzydowski | (Niebrzydowski) assistant professor at University of Gdansk |
| 2006 | Malgorzata Dabkowska | senior lecturer of mathematics at the University of Texas at Dallas[16] |
| 2005 | Eric Ufferman | visiting assistant professor at GWU[17] |
| 2004 | Laure Helme-Guizon | co-wrote "Torsion in Graph Technology" with Józef H. Przytycki[18] |
| 2003 | Amir Togha | associate professor of mathematics at Bronx Community College[19] |
| 2002 | Mietek Dabkowski | associate professor at University of Texas at Dallas |
| 2001 | Rumen Dimitrov | associate professor of mathematics at Western Illinois University[20] |
| 2000 | Maxim Sokolov | works at a Chicago investment company[21] |
| 1999 | Hongxun Qin | works at Mitre Corporation [22] |
| 1998 | William Collier | – |
| 1997 | Jun Zhang | – |
| 1996 | Adam Sikora | assistant professor of mathematics at SUNY at Buffalo[23] |
| 1995 | William Miller | |
| 1994 | Qing Shen | – |
| 1992 | Sita Ramamurti | associate professor of mathematics at Trinity Washington University[24] |
| 1991 | Gary Schwartz | – |
| 1990 | Uma Shivapuram | – |
| 1988 | Claire Hackett | – |
| 1987 | Hassan Sedaghat | professor of mathematics at Virginia Commonwealth University[25] |
| 1986 | Karma Dajani | senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands)[26] |
| 1983 | Karma Dajani | senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands)[26] |
| 1978 | John Petro | – |
| 1977 | Thomas J Carter | professor and chair of computer science/cognitive studies at CSU Stanislaus[27] |