Rumford Prize

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.

Not to be confused with the Rumford Medal.
Rumford Prize
A sharp-chinned man wearing a white powdered wig
Benjamin Thompson, whose grant paid for the formation of the Rumford Prize
Awarded forContributions to the fields of heat and light
CountryUnited States
Presented byAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences
First awarded1839
Last awarded2021
Websiteamacad.org/about/prizes
Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

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
A watercolor portrait of a sturdy man in a black suit with a large but tidy beard.
Robert Hare, first recipient of the prize in 1839
A man leaning on a chair. His hand is to his head as if he is thinking.
Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1886 recipient
An aged man sitting in a chair. His hands are at his hips.
Thomas Alva Edison, 1895 recipient
Portrait of a man wearing glasses, a jacket and a tie.
Ernest Fox Nichols, 1904 recipient
Portrait of an old man with a white beard. The man is wearing a jacket and a tie.
James M. Crafts, 1911 recipient
A man looking to the camera, wearing a suit. He is standing in front of a machine.
Enrico Fermi, 1953 recipient
A portrait of a man looking a bit to the side wearing a suit
Hans Bethe,1963 recipient
Gold medal awarded to the Canadian Group in 1971
1971 Rumford Prize won by the Canadian Group
An old man sitting in a chair and wearing a shirt with a tie. He is holding his glasses with both hands and is sitting in front of his desk
Bruno Rossi, 1976 recipient
An old man, wearing a pullover is smiling.
Chen Ning Yang, 1980 recipient
A man with white hair is wearing glasses and looking forward. He is sitting on a chair, in front of a desk.
John C. Mather, 1996 recipient
A man wearing glasses with a tie and a suit jacket looks to the camera and smiles
Sam Nunn, 2008 recipient
George P. Shultz, 2008 recipient

Source: American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Past Prizes

Year Name Location[a] Rationale
1839 Robert Hare Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe
1862 John Ericsson 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 Daniel Treadwell Cambridge, Massachusetts Heat management. He was awarded especially for his contributions towards a "cannon of large caliber, and great strength and endurance".
1866 Alvan Clark Cambridge, Massachusetts Improved refracting telescopes
1869 George Henry Corliss Providence, Rhode Island For improving the steam engine
1871 Joseph Harrison Jr. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Towards his concern for safer steam boilers
1873 Lewis Morris Rutherfurd New York, New York For improving the "processes and methods" of astronomical photography
1875 John William Draper New York, New York For his work towards apprehending radiant energy
1880 Josiah Willard Gibbs New Haven, Connecticut Founded the field of chemical thermodynamics
1883 Henry Augustus Rowland Baltimore, Maryland For his research in light and heat
1886 Samuel Pierpont Langley Allegheny, Philadelphia For his work towards the understanding of radiant energy
1888 Albert Abraham Michelson 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 Edward Charles Pickering Cambridge, Massachusetts For his work on stellar photometry and stellar spectra
1895 Thomas Alva Edison Orange, New Jersey For his investigations in electric lighting
1898 James Edward Keeler Allegheny, Pennsylvania For the applications of the spectroscope, and especially his investigations of nebulae and the physical contents of Saturn's rings
1899 Charles Francis Brush Cleveland, Ohio For the development of the electric arc lamp
1900 Carl Barus Providence, Rhode Island For his heat research
1901 Elihu Thomson Lynn, Massachusetts For his work in welding and lighting
1902 George Ellery Hale Chicago, Illinois For his investigations in solar and stellar physics and for the invention of the spectro-heliograph
1904 Ernest Fox Nichols New York, New York For his research on radiation, radiation pressure, stellar heat, and the infrared spectrum
1907 Edward Goodrich Acheson Niagara Falls, New York For the application of the electric furnace to the production of carborundum and graphite
1909 Robert Williams Wood Baltimore, Maryland For light-related discoveries, including the optical properties of sodium and other metallic vapors
1910 Charles Gordon Curtis New York, New York For his improvements to the steam turbine
1911 James Mason Crafts Boston, Massachusetts For his work in thermometry, and the development of new fixed points on the scale.[b]
1912 Frederic Eugene Ives Woodcliff-on-Hudson, New Jersey For his inventions in color photography and photoengraving
1913 Joel Stebbins Urbana, Illinois For the development of the selenium photometer and its application to scientific problems
1914 William David Coolidge Schenectady, New York For his invention of ductile tungsten
1915 Charles Greeley Abbot Washington, D.C. For his research in solar radiation
1917 Percy Williams Bridgman Cambridge, Massachusetts For his high-pressure thermodynamic breakthroughs
1918 Theodore Lyman Cambridge, Massachusetts Awarded for his research on short-wave and long-wave wavelengths
1920 Irving Langmuir Schenectady, New York "For his research in thermionic and allied phenomena"
1925 Henry Norris Russell Princeton, New Jersey Awarded for his research in solar radiation
1926 Arthur Holly Compton Chicago, Illinois Awarded for his research in Roentgen rays
1928 Edward Leamington Nichols Ithaca, New York "For his research in spectrophotometry"
1930 John Stanley Plaskett Victoria, British Columbia For his astronomical spectrographic research[c]
1931 Karl Taylor Compton Cambridge, Massachusetts He was awarded the medal for thermionics and spectroscopic research.
1933 Harlow Shapley Cambridge, Massachusetts For his work with the luminosity of stars and galaxies
1937 William Weber Coblentz Washington, D.C. For his improvements in the measurement of heat and light
1939 George Russell Harrison Belmont, Massachusetts "For pioneering improvements in spectroscopics"
1941 Vladimir Kosma Zworykin Princeton, New Jersey Awarded for the creation of the iconoscope and other related devices
1943 Charles Edward Mees Rochester, New York For his contributions to photography
1945 Edwin Herbert Land Cambridge, Massachusetts For his inventions related to the application of polarized light
1947 Edmund Newton Harvey Princeton, New Jersey For his research in bioluminescence
1949 Ira Sprague Bowen Pasadena, California For his work on the identification of nebulium and for other outstanding works
1951 Herbert E. Ives Montclair, New Jersey For his research in the field of optics
1953 Enrico Fermi Chicago, Illinois For his investigations in electromagnetic radiation and nuclear energy
1953 Willis E. Lamb Jr. Stanford, California Awarded for studying the hydrogen spectrum
1953 Lars Onsager New Haven, Connecticut For his investigations in thermodynamics related to transportation
1955 James Franck Chicago, Illinois For his studies in the investigation of photosynthesis
1957 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Williams Bay, Wisconsin For his investigations of the radiative energy balance in stars
1959 George Wald Cambridge, Massachusetts For identifying the biochemical basis of vision
1961 Charles Hard Townes New York, New York "For his development of the laser"
1963 Hans Albrecht Bethe Ithaca, New York For pioneering studies in stellar nucleosynthesis
1965 Samuel Cornette Collins Cambridge, Massachusetts For the invention of the Collins Helium Cryostat and other pioneering work
1965 William David McElroy Baltimore, Maryland For his work on the molecular origin of bioluminescence
1967 Robert Henry Dicke Princeton, New Jersey "For his contributions to microwave radiometry and to the understanding of atomic structure"
1967 Cornelius B. Van Niel Stanford, California For his contributions to the study of photosynthesis
1968 Maarten Schmidt 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 E. Bright Wilson Cambridge, Massachusetts For pioneering the importance of symmetry in polyatomic molecules and for his active work in the field of microwave spectroscopy
1976 Bruno Rossi Cambridge, Massachusetts For discovering the origins of cosmic radiation
1980 Gregorio Weber Urbana, Illinois For researching the theory of, and working on the application of, fluorescence
1980 Chen Ning Yang

Robert Mills

 Stony Brook, New York

Columbus, Ohio

 "For development of a generalized gauge invariant field theory"
1985 Hans Georg Dehmelt

Martin Deutsch

Vernon Willard Hughes

Norman Foster Ramsey

 Seattle, Washington

Cambridge, Massachusetts

New Haven, Connecticut

Cambridge, Massachusetts

 Awarded for his work in the field of atomic spectroscopy
1986 Robert B. Leighton

Frank J. Low

Gerry Neugebauer

 Pasadena, California

Tucson, Arizona

Pasadena, California

 For his work in developing infrared astronomy
1992 James R. Norris

Joseph J. Katz

George Feher

 Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, Illinois

San Diego, California

 Awarded for working towards the understanding of photosynthesis
1996 John C. Mather Greenbelt, Maryland For his research related to the cosmic microwave background
2008 Sidney D. Drell

Sam Nunn

William J. Perry

George P. Shultz

 Stanford University

Nuclear Threat Initiative[d]

Stanford University

Stanford University

 For their efforts to reduce the global threat of nuclear weapons[10]
2015 Federico Capasso

Alfred Cho

 Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Alcatel-Lucent Bell Laboratory

 For their contributions to the field of laser technology
2019 Ernst Bamberg
Ed Boyden
Karl Deisseroth
Peter Hegemann
Gero Miesenböck
Georg Nagel		 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 Charles L. Bennett Baltimore, Maryland For his contributions to the field of cosmology

See also

References and notes
  • [a] ^ In this sense, location refers to the recipient's place of work or association


  1. "Academy Prizes". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2006. Archived from the original on 2011-11-05. Retrieved 2009-06-17.
  2. "The Rumford Medallists of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. The Royal Society. 8 (1): 90–94. October 1950. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1950.0004. JSTOR 3087234.
  3. Conant Church, William (1890). The Life of John Ericsson. Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 217–218. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
  4. "Past Prizes". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  5. "Notes—Rumford Award Made to Canadian Radio Astronomers; R.A.S.C. Award at Tenth Canada-Wide Science Fair; Fondation de la Société Astronomique du Canada". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 65: 187. August 1971. Bibcode:1971JRASC..65..187.
  6. Kellerman, Kenneth I.; Cohen, Marshall H. (October 1988). "The origin and evolution of the N.R.A.O.-Cornell VLBI system". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 82: 248–265. Bibcode:1988JRASC..82..248K.
  7. Dunn, Peter. "Radio Astronomer Ken Kellermann '59 Pioneered Very Long Baseline Interferometry". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  8. Rossi, Bruno B. (1970). "Report of the Rumford Committee". Records of the Academy (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) (1970/1971): 14. ISSN 0065-6844. JSTOR 3785392.
  9. Morrison, Philip; Rogers, Alan E. E. (1972-01-14). "Long-Baseline Interferometry". Science. 175 (4018): 218–220. Bibcode:1972Sci...175..218R. doi:10.1126/science.175.4018.218. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17771806.
  10. "Nuclear Arms Control Leaders Receive Prestigious Rumford Prize from the American Academy". 2008 Rumford Prize press release (Press release). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 2008-10-09. Retrieved 2018-01-03.
  11. "Rumford Prize Awarded for the Invention and Refinement of Optogenetics". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2019-03-12.

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