Keith Medal Explained

The Keith Medal was a prize awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy, for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery, either in mathematics or earth sciences.

The Medal was inaugurated in 1827 as a result of a gift from Alexander Keith of Dunnottar, the first Treasurer of the Society. It was awarded quadrennially, alternately for a paper published in: Proceedings A (Mathematics) or Transactions (Earth and Environmental Sciences). The medal bears the head of John Napier of Merchiston.

The medal is no longer awarded.^[1]

Recipients of the Keith Gold Medal

Source (1827 to 1913): Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

19th century

• 1827–29: David Brewster, on his Discovery of Two New Immiscible Fluids in the Cavities of certain Minerals
• 1829–31: David Brewster, on a New Analysis of Solar Light
• 1831–33: Thomas Graham,^[2] on the Law of the Diffusion of Gases
• 1833–35: James David Forbes, on the Refraction and Polarization of Heat
• 1835–37: John Scott Russell, on Hydrodynamics
• 1837–39: John Shaw,^[3] on the Development and Growth of the Salmon
• 1839–41: Not awarded^[3]
• 1841–43: James David Forbes, on Glaciers
• 1843–45: Not awarded^[3]
• 1845–47: Sir Thomas Brisbane,^[3] for the Makerstoun Observations on Magnetic Phenomena
• 1847–49: Not awarded^[3]
• 1849–51: Philip Kelland,^[4] on General Differentiation, including his more recent Communication on a process of the Differential Calculus, and its application to the solution of certain Differential Equations
• 1851–53: William John Macquorn Rankine,^[4] on the Mechanical Action of Heat
• 1853–55: Thomas Anderson,^[5] on the Crystalline Constituents of Opium, and on the Products of the Destructive Distillation of Animal Substances
• 1855–57: George Boole,^[3] on the Application of the Theory of Probabilities to Questions of the Combination of Testimonies and Judgments
• 1857–59: Not awarded^[3]
• 1859–61: John Allan Broun, on the Horizontal Force of the Earth’s Magnetism, on the Correction of the Bifilar Magnetometer, and on Terrestrial Magnetism generally
• 1861–63: William Thomson,^[4] on some Kinematical and Dynamical Theorems
• 1863–65: James David Forbes,^[5] for Experimental Inquiry into the Laws of Conduction of Heat in Iron Bars
• 1865–67: Charles Piazzi Smyth,^[4] on Recent Measures at the Great Pyramid
• 1867–69: Peter Guthrie Tait,^[4] on the Rotation of a Rigid Body about a Fixed Point
• 1869–71: James Clerk Maxwell,^[4] on Figures, Frames, and Diagrams of Forces
• 1871–73: Peter Guthrie Tait,^[4] First Approximation to a Thermo-electric Diagram
• 1873–75: Alexander Crum Brown,^[5] on the Sense of Rotation, and on the Anatomical Relations of the Semicircular Canals of the Internal Ear
• 1875–77: Matthew Forster Heddle,^[5] on the Rhombohedral Carbonates and on the Felspars of Scotland
• 1877–79: Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin,^[5] on the Application of Graphic Methods to the Determination of the Efficiency of Machinery
• 1879–81: George Chrystal,^[5] on the Differential Telephone
• 1881–83: Sir Thomas Muir,^[4] Researches into the Theory of Determinants and Continued Fractions
• 1883–85: John Aitken,^[6] on the Formation of Small Clear Spaces in Dusty Air
• 1885–87: John Young Buchanan,^[5] for a series of communications, extending over several years, on subjects connected with Ocean Circulation, Compressibility of Glass, etc.
• 1887–89: Edmund Albert Letts,^[4] for his papers on the Organic Compounds of Phosphorus
• 1889–91: Robert Traill Omond,^[4] for his contributions to Meteorological Science
• 1891–93: Sir Thomas Richard Fraser,^[5] for his papers on Strophanthus hispidus, Strophanthin, and Strophanthidin
• 1893–95: Cargill Gilston Knott,^[4] for his papers on the Strains produced by Magnetism in Iron and in Nickel
• 1895–97: Sir Thomas Muir,^[4] for his continued communications on Determinants and Allied Questions
• 1897–99: James Burgess,^{[7] [5]} on the Definite Integral ...

20th/21st century

See also

• List of mathematics awards

External links

• Awards of Keith Prize 1827-1890
• List of recent winners
• Announcement of Jenkin's award

Notes and References

1. Web site: Keith Medal. RSE. 17 March 2017.
2. Web site: News and Events . University of Strathclyde . 28 November 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141205144306/http://www.strath.ac.uk/science/news_and_events/ . 5 December 2014 .
3. Keith Awards 1827-1890. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 36. 3. 767–770. 10.1017/S0080456800037984. 1892. 251574207.
4. Web site: Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Royal Society of Edinburgh. 27 November 2014. 16 January 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140116140212/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf. dead.
5. Web site: Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Royal Society of Edinburgh. 29 November 2014. 19 September 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf. dead.
6. Aitken, John.
7. Obituary-James Burgess. 10.1080/14702541608541591. 32. 11. Scottish Geographical Magazine. 535–538. 1916.