The following are the Regulations for the WILLIAM HOPKINS PRIZE founded in memory of WILLIAM HOPKINS (1793-1866).
1. That the Prize be called "THE WILLIAM HOPKINS PRIZE"
2. That this Prize be adjudged once in three years.
3. That it be adjudged for the best original memoir, invention or discovery, in connextion with Mathematico-physical or Mathematico-experimental science that may have been published during the three years immediately preceding, but that the adjudicators be at liberty, if it seem to them advisable in any particular case, to award the Prize for a discovery in Mathematics alone, or in Experimental Physicsalone, or for one which has not been published within theforementioned period.
4. That it be confined to those who are or have been Members of the University of Cambridge.
5. That the fund be vested in the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and the Prize adjudged by three Fellows of the Society, nominated by the Council of the Society for each occasion.
6. That, in the event of any difficulty arising in carrying out the above provisions in any particular instance, either from lack of a prize-subject of sufficient merit, or from anyother cause, the Council be at liberty to carry over the amount of the Prize for that term towards augmenting the fund for future prizes, or to award it to someone not a member of the University.
Award of the William Hopkins Prize
1867 - SIR G. G. STOKES
1870 - J. CLERK MAXWELL
1873 - LORD RAYLEIGH
1876 - LORD KELVIN
1879 - SIR G. H. DARWIN
1882 - SIR R. T. GLAZEBROOK
1885 - W. M. HICKS
1888 - SIR H. LAMB
1891 - SIR J. J. THOMSON
1894 - W. D. NIVEN
1897 - SIR J. LARMOR
1900 - S. S. HOUGH
1903 - J. H. POYNTING
1906 - W. BURNSIDE
1909 - G. H. BRYAN
1912 - C. T. R. WILSON
1915 - R. A. SAMPSON
1918 - SIR F W. DYSON
1921 - SIR A. S. EDDINGTON
1924 - SIR J. H. JEANS
1927 - SIR G. I. TAYLOR
1930 - P. A. M. DIRAC
1933 - P. M. S. BLACKETT
1936 - E. A. MILNE
1939 - SIR J. D. COCKCROFT
1942 - H. J. BHABHA
1945 - C. F. POWELL
1948 - SIR J. LENNARD-JONES
1951 - R. A. LYTTLETON
1954 - M. RYLE
1957 - A. SALAM
1960 - M. J. LIGHTHILL
1963 - J. M. ZIMAN
1966 - A. KELLY
1969 - T. BROOKE BENJAMIN
1972 - A. HEWISH
1975 - S. W. HAWKING
1979 - D.P. McKenzie
1980 - Lord M. J. Rees
1985 - D.O. Gough
1988 - M.B. Green
1991 - S.K. Donaldson
1993 - R.D.E. Saunders
1996 - Sir J.E. Baldwin
1999 - P.K. Townsend
From Darwin’s paper on evolution to the development of stem cell research, publications from the Society continue to shape the scientific landscape.
Mathematical Proceedings is one of the few high-quality journals publishing original research papers that cover the whole range of pure and applied mathematics, theoretical physics and statistics.
Biological Reviews covers the entire range of the biological sciences, presenting several review articles per issue. Although scholarly and with extensive bibliographies, the articles are aimed at non-specialist biologists as well as researchers in the field.
The Spirit of Inquiry celebrates the 200th anniversary of the remarkable Cambridge Philosophical Society and brings to life the many remarkable episodes and illustrious figures associated with the Society, including Adam Sedgwick, Mary Somerville, Charles Darwin, and Lawrence Bragg.
Become a Fellow of the Society and enjoy the benefits that membership brings. Membership costs £20 per year.
Show All
Volcanoes are hazardous and beautiful manifestations of the dynamic processes that have shaped our planet. Volcanoes impact our environment in numerous ways. Over geological time volcanic activity has resurfaced the Earth and provided life with a terrestrial substrate upon which to proliferate. Volcanic degassing has shaped our secondary atmosphere and as part of the process of plate tectonics, maintained just the right amount of water and carbon dioxide at the surface to produce a stable and equitable climate. Magma in the subsurface in volcanic environments today gives Society geothermal energy. The fluids degassed from magmas in the plumbing systems of volcanoes give rise to hydrothermal ore deposits, the source of much of our copper and other metals, critical to the energy transition. In this lecture I will describe the nature and importance of magma degassing for our atmosphere and oceans, as a source of both pollutants and nutrients, and in the formation of mineral deposits. I will describe my own research in carrying out measurements of volcanic gases (using a range of spectroscopic methods, from the ground and using drones), and analysis of erupted lavas, to understand the chemistry and physics of volcanic outgassing and its role in sustaining our planetary environment.
One of the many outstanding achievements of G I Taylor was the discovery of relatively simple statistical laws that apply to highly complex turbulent flows. The emergence of simple laws from complexity is well known in other branches of physics, for example the emergence of the laws of heat conduction from molecular dynamics. Complexity can also arise at large scales, and the structural vibration of an aircraft or a car can be a surprisingly difficult phenomenon to analyse, partly because millions of degrees of freedom may be involved, and partly because the vibration can be extremely sensitive to small changes or imperfections in the system. In this talk it is shown that the prediction of vibration levels can be much simplified by the derivation and exploitation of emergent laws, analogous to some extent to the heat conduction equations, but with an added statistical aspect, as in turbulent flow. The emergent laws are discussed and their application to the design of aerospace, marine, and automotive structures is described. As an aside it will be shown that the same emergent theory can be applied to a range of problems involving electromagnetic fields.
Registered address:17 Mill LaneCambridgeCB2 1RXUnited Kingdom
Business address:6A King's ParadeCambridgeCB2 1SJUnited Kingdom
Office hours at the business address:Monday and Thursday: 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm.
Please contact philosoc@group.cam.ac.uk to agree a timing before visiting the office.