Rumford Medal

Not to be confused with the Rumford Prize

Count Rumford, for whom the award is named

The Rumford Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternating year for 'an outstandingly important recent discovery in the field of thermal or optical properties of matter made by a scientist working in Europe'. First awarded in 1800, it was created after a 1796 donation of $5000 by the scientist Benjamin Thompson, known as Count Rumford, and is accompanied by a £1000 gift. Since its creation, the medal has been awarded to 100 individuals, including Rumford himself in 1800. The medal has been awarded to citizens of the United Kingdom fifty-three times, Germany seventeen times, France fourteen times, the Netherlands seven times, the United States three times, Italy twice and once each to citizens of Australia, Hungary, Luxembourg and New Zealand. The most recent winner was Edward Hinds in 2008, a physicist from the United Kingdom who was awarded the medal "for his extensive and highly innovative work in ultra-cold matter".

Year	Name	Nationality	Rationale
1800	Benjamin Thompson	American	"For his various discoveries respecting Heat and Light"
1802	No award	–	–
1804	John Leslie	British	"For his Experiments on Heat, published in his work, entitled, An Experimental Enquiry into the Nature and Propagation of Heat"
1806	No award	–	–
1808	William Murdoch	British	"For his publication of the employment of Gas from Coal, for the purpose of illumination"
1810	Étienne-Louis Malus	French	"For the discovery of certain new properties of Reflected Light, published in the second volume of the Memoires dArcueil"
1812	No award	–	–
1814	William Charles Wells	British	"For his Essay on Dew, published in the course of the preceding (1815) year"
1816	Humphry Davy	British	"For his Papers on Combustion and Flame, published in the last volume of the Philosophical Transactions"
1818	David Brewster	British	"For his Discoveries relating to the Polarization of Light"
1820	No award	–	–
1822	No award	–	–
1824	Augustin-Jean Fresnel	French	"For his Development of the Undulatory Theory as applied to the Phenomena of Polarized Light, and for his various important discoveries in Physical Optics"
1826	No award	–	–
1828	No award	–	–
1830	No award	–	–
1832	John Frederic Daniell	British	"For his Paper, entitled, Further Experiments with a new Register Pyrometer, for measuring the expansion of Solids, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1831"
1834	Macedonio Melloni	Italian	"For his discoveries relevant to radiant heat"
1836	No award	–	–
1838	James David Forbes	British	"For his experiments on the polarization of heat, of which an account was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh"
1840	Jean-Baptiste Biot	French	"For his researches in, and connected with, the circular polarization of light"
1842	William Fox Talbot	British	"For his discoveries and improvements in photography"
1844	No award	–	–
1846	Michael Faraday	British	"For his discovery of the optical phenomena developed by the action of magnets and electric currents in certain transparent media, the details of which are published in the nineteenth series of his experimental researches in electricity, inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1845 and in the Philosophical Magazine"
1848	Henri Victor Regnault	French	"For his experiments to determine the laws and the numerical data which enter into the calculation of steam engines"
1850	François Arago	French	"For his experimental investigations on polarized light, the concluding memoirs on which were communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris during the last two years"
1852	George Gabriel Stokes	British	"For his discovery of the change in the refrangibility of light"
1854	Neil Arnott	British	"For the successful construction of the smokeless fire grate lately introduced by him, and for other valuable improvements in the application of heat to the warming and ventilation of apartments"
1856	Louis Pasteur	French	"For his discovery of the nature of racemic acid and its relations to polarized light, and for the researches to which he was led by that discovery"
1858	Jules Jamin	French	"For his various experimental researches on light"
1860	James Clerk Maxwell	British	"For his researches on the composition of colours, and other optical papers"
1862	Gustav Kirchhoff	German	"For his researches on the fixed lines of the solar spectrum, and on the inversion of the bright lines in the spectra of artificial light"
1864	John Tyndall	British	"For his researches on the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours"
1866	Hippolyte Fizeau	French	"For his optical researches, & especially for his investigations into the effect of heat on the refractive power of transparent bodies"
1868	Balfour Stewart	British	"For his researches on the qualitative as well as quantitative relation between the emissive and absorptive powers of bodies for heat and light, published originally in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, and now made more generally accessible by the publication in 1866 of his treatise on heat"
1870	Alfred Des Cloizeaux	French	"For his researches in mineralogical optics"
1872	Anders Jonas Ångström	Swedish	"For his researches on spectral analysis"
1874	Joseph Norman Lockyer	British	"For his spectroscopic researches on the Sun and on the chemical elements"
1876	Jules Janssen	French	"For his numerous & important researches in the radiation & absorption of light, carried on chiefly by means of the spectroscope"
1878	Alfred Cornu	French	"For his various optical researches, and especially for his recent redetermination of the velocity of the propagation of light"
1880	William Huggins	British	"For his important researches in astronomical spectroscopy, and especially for his determination of the radical component of the proper motions of stars"
1882	William de Wiveleslie Abney	British	"For his photographic researches and his discovery of the method of photographing the less refrangibel part of the spectrum, especially the infra-red region; also for his researches on the absorption of various compound bodies in this part of the spectrum"
1884	Tobias Robertus Thalen	Swedish	"For his spectroscopic researches"
1886	Samuel Pierpont Langley	American	"For his researches on the spectrum by means of the Rolometer"
1888	Pietro Tacchini	Italian	"For important and long-continued investigations, which have largely advanced our knowledge of the physics of the Sun"
1890	Heinrich Hertz	German	"For his work in electromagnetic radiation"
1892	Nils Christoffer Dunér	Swedish	"For his spectroscopic researches on stars"
1894	James Dewar	British	"For his researches on the properties of matter at extremely low temperatures"
1896	Wilhelm Röntgen and Philipp Lenard	German	"For their investigations of the phenomena produced outside a highly exhausted tube through which an electrical discharge is taking place"
1898	Oliver Joseph Lodge	British	"For his researches in radiation and in the relations between matter and ether"
1900	Henri Becquerel	French	"For his discoveries in radiation proceding [sic] from uranium"
1902	Charles Algernon Parsons	British	"For his success in the application of the steam turbine to industrial purposes, and for its recent extension to navigation"
1904	Ernest Rutherford	New Zealander	"For his researches on radio-activity, particularly for his discovery of the existence and properties of the gaseous emanations from radio-active bodies"
1906	Hugh Longbourne Callendar	British	"For his experimental work on heat"
1908	Hendrik Lorentz	Dutch	"On the ground of his investigations in optical and electrical science"
1910	Heinrich Rubens	German	"On the ground of his researches on radiation, especially of long wave length"
1912	Heike Kamerlingh Onnes	Dutch	"On the ground of his researches at low temperatures"
1914	John Strutt	British	"On the ground of his investigations in thermo-dynamics and on radiation"
1916	William Henry Bragg	British	"On the ground of his researches in X-ray radiation"
1918	Charles Fabry and Alfred Perot	French	"On the ground of their contributions to optics"
1920	John Strutt	British	"On the ground of his researches into the properties of gases at high vacua"
1922	Pieter Zeeman	Dutch	"For his researches in optics"
1924	Charles Vernon Boys	British	"For his invention of the gas calorimeter"
1926	Arthur Schuster	British	"For his services to physical science, especially in the subjects of optics and terrestrial magnetism"
1928	Friedrich Paschen	German	"For his contributions to the knowledge of spectra"
1930	Peter Debye	Dutch	"For his work relating to specific heats and X-ray spectroscopy"
1932	Fritz Haber	German	"For the outstanding importance of his work in physical chemistry, especially in the application of thermodynamics to chemical reactions"
1934	Wander Johannes de Haas	Dutch	"For his researches on the properties of bodies at low temperatures, and in particular, for his recent work on cooling by the use of adiabatic demagnetisation"
1936	Ernest John Coker	British	"For his researches on the use of polarized light for investigating directly the stresses in transparent models of engineering structures"
1938	Robert Wood	American	"In recognition of his distinguished work and discoveries in many branches of physical optics"
1940	Manne Siegbahn	Swedish	"For his poioneer work in high precision X-ray spectroscopy and its applications"
1942	Gordon Dobson	British	"In recognition of his outstanding work on the physics of the upper air and its application to meteorology"
1944	Harry Ricardo	British	"In recognition of his important contributions to research on the internal combustion engine, which have greatly influenced the development of the various types"
1946	Alfred Egerton	British	"In recognition of his leading part in the application of modern physical chemistry to many technological problems of pressing importance"
1948	Francis Simon	German	"For his outstanding contributions to the attainment of low temperatures and to the study of the properties of substances at temperatures near the absolute zero"
1950	Frank Whittle	British	"For his pioneering contributions to the jet propulsion of aircraft"
1952	Frits Zernike	Dutch	"In recognition of his outstanding work in the development of phase contrast microscopy"
1954	Cecil Reginald Burch	British	"For his distinguished contributions to the technique for the production of high vacua and to the development of the reflecting microscope"
1956	Frank Philip Bowden	Australian	"In recognition of his distinguished work on the nature of friction"
1958	Thomas Ralph Merton	British	"In recognition of his distinguished researches in spectroscopy and optics"
1960	Alfred Gordon Gaydon	British	"In recognition of his distinguished work in the field of molecular spectroscopy and particularly its application to the study of flame phenomena"
1962	Dudley Maurice Newitt	British	"In recognition of his distinguished contributions to chemical engineering"
1964	Hendrik van de Hulst	Dutch	"In recognition of his distinguished work on the scattering processes in the interplanetary medium and his prediction of the 21 cm spectral line from interstellar neutral hydrogen"
1966	William Penney	British	"In recognition of his distingsuihed [sic] and paramount personal contribution to the establishment of economic nuclear energy in Great Britain"
1968	Dennis Gabor	Hungarian	"In recognition of his distinguished contributions to optics, especially by establishing the principles of holography"
1970	Christopher Hinton	British	"In recognition of his outstanding contributions to engineering and of his leadership of engineering design teams in the chemical and atomic energy industries and in electricity generation"
1972	Basil John Mason	British	"In recognition of his distinguished contributions to meteorology, particularly the physics of clouds"
1974	Alan Cottrell	British	"In recognition of his contributions to physical metallurgy and particularly extending knowledge of the role of dislocation in the fracture of metals"
1976	Ilya Prigogine	Russian	"In recognition of his distinguished contributions to the theory of irreversible thermodynamics"
1978	George Porter	British	"In recognition of his distinguished studies of very fast chemical reactions by flash photolysis"
1980	William Frank Vinen	British	"In recognition of his discovery of the quantum of circulation in superfluid helium and his development of new techniques for precise measurements within liquid helium"
1982	Charles Gorrie Wynne	British	"In recognition of his unique contribution to the design of optical instruments ranging from large telescopes to bubble-chamber optics"
1984	Harold Hopkins	British	"In recognition of his many contributions to the theory and design of optical instruments, especially of a wide variety of important new medical instruments which have made a major contribution to clinical diagnosis and surgery"
1986	Denis Rooke	British	"In recognition of his contributions to scientific developments in the gas industry"
1988	Felix Weinberg	British	"In recognition of his pioneering work on optical diagnostics and electrical aspects of combustion and his fundamental studies of flame problems associated with jet engines and furnaces"
1990	Walter Eric Spear	German	"For discovering and applying techniques for depositing and characterising thin films of high quality amorphous silicon and for demonstrating that these can be doped to give useful electronic devices, such as cost-effective solar cells and large arrays of thin film transistors, now used in commercial, flat-panel, LCD colour TV screens"
1992	Harold Neville Vazeille Temperley	British	"In recognition of his wide-ranging and imaginative contributions to applied mathematics and statistical physics, especially in the physical properties of liquids and the development of the Temperley-Lieb algebra"
1994	Andrew Keller	British	"In recognition of his contributions to polymer science, in particular his elucidation of the basis of polymeric crystallization, a fundamental ingredient in many materials, to methods of making strong fibres and to the understanding of polymer solutions which underlie this technology"
1996	Grenville Turner	British	"In recognition of his work on the 40Ar/39Ar method of dating developing this technique to a sophisticated level and one which is widely used for dating extraterrestrial and terrestrial rocks"
1998	Richard Friend	British	"In recognition of his leading research in the development of polymer-based electronics and optoelectronics leading to a very rapid growth of development activities aimed at plastic electronic displays, with advantages of very low cost, flexibility, and the option of curved or flat surfaces"
2000	Wilson Sibbett	British	"In recognition of his research on ultra-short pulse laser science and technology. In his work on streak cameras, he first demonstrated the technique of sub-picosecond chronoscopy whereby the cameras, by synchronous repetition, can function as oscilloscopes. He conducted pioneering work on coupled cavity modelocking, and his discovery of the technique of self-modelocking led to the commercialisation of sub-picosecond pulses over a wide tuning range. He also exploited diode-pumped solid-state lasers in nonlinear optics for frequency conversion by demonstrating the worlds first all-solid-state optical parametric oscillator"
2002	David King	British	"for his outstanding contributions to our fundamental understanding of the structure and dynamics of reaction processes on solid surfaces"
2004	Richard Dixon	British	"in recognition of his many contributions to molecular spectroscopy and to the dynamics of molecular photodissociation."
2006	Jean-Pierre Hansen	Luxembourgian	"for his pioneering work on molten salts and dense plasmas that has led the way to a quantative understanding of the structure and dynamics of strongly correlated ionic liquids"
2008	Edward Hinds	British	"for his extensive and highly innovative work in ultra-cold matter"

External links

• Rumford Medal
• List of recipients of the Rumford Medal