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NZMS Awards and prizes

COVID and the Society’s Research Awards

NZMS recognises that the effects of COVID lockdowns and other disruptions on research capacity have been unequally distributed. To ameliorate this, the prize committee determining our research awards will take unequal opportunity loss due to COVID disruption into account. To facilitate this consideration candidates are invited to submit a half page description of the effect that COVID related disruption has had on their research output. Submitting this description is voluntary and, as with all other application materials, the information revealed is protected by our privacy policy.

Policy relating to COVID will be updated as appropriate at the beginning of each calendar year.

NZMS Research Award

This annual Award was instituted in 1990 to foster mathematical research in New Zealand and to recognise excellence in research carried out by mathematicians in New Zealand. This Award is based on mathematical research published in the last five calendar years (2019-2024). This could include research published in books, journals, other peer-reviewed venues, or other types of high quality mathematical research.

Eligibility. To be eligible for the Award, a candidate must be a current member of the NZMS and must have been residing in New Zealand for the last three years.

The five year assessment period may be adjusted to take into account career breaks. Candidates may contact the NZMS President Dr Melissa Tacy in confidence for clarification of how the adjustment of time period applies to the their particular circumstances.

Nominations should include the following:

Unsuccessful applicants from 2023 will be invited to update their application so that it can be reconsidered in 2024.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President, Dr Melissa Tacy by 31 August 2024. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the NZMS Research Award. Candidates may nominate themselves.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and the panel makes recommendations to the President for the Award. No person shall receive the Award more than once. The Award consists of a certificate including an appropriate citation of the awardee's work, and will be announced and presented at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

The Research Award for 2023 was presented at the NZMS Colloquium to Michael Plank (University of Canterbury) " For research in stochastic and nonlinear dynamical models that has led to new mathematical advances and novel insights into a range of application areas including cell biology, the dynamics and management of complex ecosystems, and epidemiological modelling."

NZMS Early Career Research Award

This award was instituted in 2006 to foster mathematical research in New Zealand and to recognise excellent research carried out by early-career New Zealand mathematicians. Candidates will be judged on their best three published research outputs and a brief CV. Research outputs could include publications in books, journals, other peer-reviewed venues, or other types of high quality mathematical research.

Eligibility. Candidates may contact the NZMS President Dr Melissa Tacy in confidence for clarification of how the following eligibility criteria apply to their particular circumstances.

Nominations and applications should include the following:

Unsuccessful applicants from 2023 who are still eligible in 2024 will be invited to update their application so that it can be reconsidered in 2024.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President, Dr Melissa Tacy by 31 August 2024. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the NZMS Early Career Award. Applicants may nominate themselves.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and makes recommendations to the President for the Award. No person shall receive the Award more than once. The Award consists of a certificate including an appropriate citation of the awardee's work, and will be announced and presented at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

The Early Career Award for 2023 was presented at the NZMS Colloquium to Brendan Harding (Victoria University of Wellington) "For significant contributions to a broad range of fields including fluid dynamics, numerical analysis and fractal geometry. Recent work on inertial particle focusing in curved duct geometries exemplifies his ability to tackle complex problems and extract far-reaching results," and to Rachelle Binny (Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research) "For a blend of application-driven modelling and theoretical advances in spatial moment dynamics. Her work has driven advances in applied mathematics, as well as having impact in real-world applications including New Zealand’s COVID-19 response."

Gillian Thornley Award for outstanding contribution to the cause or profession of mathematics

This annual award was established in 2020 to recognize outstanding contributions to the cause or profession of mathematics in New Zealand. The award will be made to a person or group that has made an outstanding contribution to mathematics within NZ, with the nominations being assessed on the basis of the case made by the nominators. For the purposes of this award, “contribution to the cause or profession or mathematics” could include (but is not limited to) contributions to teaching and education, research leadership, outreach, engagement with government bodies, diversity, service to professional societies, mentoring, and communication of mathematics to a general audience.

Eligibility. Nominees need not be members of the NZMS but the award would normally be given for work that took place in New Zealand and contributed to NZ mathematics.

Nominations should include the following:

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President, Dr Melissa Tacy by 31 August 2024. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the Gillian Thornley Award.

The Gillian Thornley Award for 2023 was presented at the NZMS Colloquium to Sina Greenwood (University of Auckland) "For her demonstrated commitment to improving learning outcomes for Māori and Pacific students for over 20 years, with scores of students having benefited from the programmes and initiatives that Sina has had the determination and perseverance to deliver. She has also demonstrated outstanding leadership in this domain and is currently the Associate Dean Pacific in the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland and led the development of a Pacific Strategy for Science."

Kalman Prize for Best Paper

The Kalman Prize for Best Paper was instituted in 2016 to recognise excellence in research carried out by New Zealand mathematicians. The Prize will normally be awarded annually for an outstanding and innovative piece of research in the mathematical sciences published by a member or members of the NZMS. The Prize is for a single publication of original research, which may be an article, monograph or book, having appeared within the last 5 calendar years: 2019-2024. The value of the Prize is $5000. The Prize is generously funded by the Margaret and John Kalman Charitable Trust, and recognises the significant contributions to mathematics in New Zealand made by Professor John Kalman.

Eligibility. A publication may be nominated for the Prize by any member of the NZMS who is not an author of that publication. To be eligible, the nominated publication must have at least one author who:

i) is a current member of the NZMS, and was a member in the calendar year of publication of the nominated work; and
ii) is a resident of New Zealand, and used a New Zealand address in the publication.

In the case of publications with multiple eligible authors, the Prize will be shared by all eligible authors. The existence of authors who do not meet the conditions in i) and ii) above will not preclude the award, although the judging panel may take into account whether the NZ author has made a major contribution to the published work. The judging panel may deem a publication ineligible if an author has previously received an award from the NZMS for a body of research that included the nominated publication.

Nominations should include the following:

Unsuccessful applicants from 2023 (whose publication remains within the eligibility period) will be invited to update their application so that it can be reconsidered in 2024.

Nominations should be sent by email to the NZMS President, Dr Melissa Tacy by 31 August 2024. Submissions should state clearly that they are for the Kalman Prize for Best Paper.

A judging panel will be appointed by the NZMS President, and makes recommendations to the President for the Prize. We note that the prize should be awarded solely on the merit of the publication, not on career achievements of the author or authors. The winner(s) of the prize will be announced at the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium Dinner in December.

The Kalman Prize for Best Paper in 2023 was awarded to Marston Conder (University of Auckland) for the paper `Edge-transitive bi-Cayley graphs’, written jointly with Jin-Xin Zhou, Yan-Quan Feng and Mi-Mi Zhang (Beijing Jiaotong University), and published in 2020 in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B.

NZMS Teaching Excellence Award

The annual NZMS Award for Teaching Excellence has been established to recognise an outstanding teaching practice of mathematics lecturers in the New Zealand tertiary sector. Each year one Teaching Excellence Award will be presented at the NZMS Colloquium. The awardee will be invited to write a short classroom note for the NZMS Newsletter. A call for nominations will be made each year, and nominations will close on 31 August of the year of the award.

Eligibility criteria

The nominee

Guidelines.

Nominees are encouraged to select one or more of the five focus areas listed below, and include clear and consistent forms of evidence addressing this focus area. Nominees should demonstrate that their contribution has gained recognition supported by evidence. The focus areas are:

Advice to the applicants.

The application should consist of

a) a standard cover sheet.

b) a proposed citation (maximum 100 words) to describe the work of the nominee

c) a statement addressing the selection criteria of no more than two A4 pages, arguing the case for offering the award to the nominee and providing evidence of the contribution in the chosen focus area(s)

d) a Curriculum Vitae of no more than four A4 pages, summarising the nominee’s professional career and highlighting any achievements in learning and teaching of mathematics which add support to the nomination

e) two references of no more than one A4 page each, provided by people able to comment on the applicant’s contribution to student learning in mathematics in the chosen focus area against the selection criteria. One referee should be in a relevant formal role in the nominee’s faculty, department, school or administrative body, who can comment on the nominee’s teaching, such as the Head, Deputy Head, Academic Head, Director of Teaching, Director of First-Year Studies or Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching. The references must be signed, with electronic signatures acceptable.

Some additional pointers.

Applicants self-nominate for the award. All documents must be on A4 pages with margins of at least 2cm, using 11-point font. The application (items a-d) should be submitted as one document (PDF or Word); letters of reference may be submitted separately. Excess pages will not be provided to the Award Committee.

The Award committee will make recommendations to the President of the NZMS for approval.

Submission.

Send your application and enquiries to the NZMS President Dr Melissa Tacy. The receipt of applications will be acknowledged via return email.

NZMS Aitken Prize (Student Prize)

The Society offers a prize for the best contributed talk by a student at the annual New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium. This prize is known as the Aitken Prize, in honour of the New Zealand born mathematician Alexander Craig Aitken. The Prize was first offered at the 1995 Colloquium held in conjunction with the Aitken Centenary Conference at the University of Otago. Candidates for the Prize give a talk on a topic in any branch of the mathematical sciences.

Eligibility. To be eligible, a candidate must be enrolled (or have been enrolled) for a degree in Mathematics at a university or other tertiary institution in New Zealand in the year of the award. The prize consists of NZ$500, accompanied by a certificate. Candidates should indicate their willingness to be considered for the Prize on the Colloquium registration form.

A judging panel is appointed by the NZMS President. The panel makes recommendations to the President for the Prize, based on these guidelines. Normally the Prize will be awarded to one person, but in exceptional circumstances the Prize may be shared, or no prize may be awarded.

The prize consists of a cheque for NZ$500, accompanied by a certificate.

The Aitken Prize in 2023 was awarded to Juan Patino-Echeverria (University of Auckland) for the talk "Transitions to wild chaos in a 4D Lorenz-like system".

Privacy Act

All applications and reference letters are to be treated as confidential. They are to be accessed only by the members of the prize committee or accreditation committee and, where necessary, the NZMS president.

The NZMS president and convenor of the committee may keep a secure copy of all applications and reference letters for a maximum of one year following the conclusion of the assessment process. This is solely for the purpose of

Note that invitations to assessors and referees must make it clear that letters will be retained for these purposes.

All other committee or panel members must delete all application files and reference letters immediately following the conclusion of the assessment process.

Conflict of Interest

(Note: these have been adapted from rules used by the Royal Society for managing conflict of interest with Marsden Panel members.)

An assessor, referee, committee member or convenor has a potential conflict of interest if:

An assessor with a potential conflict of interest will not be asked to evaluate the application.

If a committee member has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the convenor. The convenor will decide whether or not the committee member can continue with their role.

If the convenor has a potential conflict of interest, they must discuss the conflict with the NZMS president. The president will decide whether the duties of convening be passed to another member. Disputes regarding conflict of interest will be resolved by the convenor and, if necessary, the NZMS president.

Recipients of the Research Award

2023Michael PlankFor research in stochastic and nonlinear dynamical models that has led to new mathematical advances and novel insights into a range of application areas including cell biology, the dynamics and management of complex ecosystems, and epidemiological modelling.
2022Noam GreenbergFor contributions and significant advances in computability theory, proof theory, set theory, computable structure theory and algorithmic information theory.
2021Clemency MontelleProfessor Montelle pursues outstanding research in the field of the history of mathematics, employing the rare combination of fluency in ancient languages and an extensive background in mathematics to uncover hitherto unknown profound and diverse mathematical achievements of our predecessors.
2020Jeroen SchillewaertFor his outstanding and diverse contributions to a broad range of topics in combinatorics and finite geometry, combining techniques from extremal and probabilistic combinatorics, linear algebra, and group theory.
2019David SimpsonThis award recognises David Simpson for combining algebra, analysis, combinatorics and traditional dynamical systems to make fundamental advances on the bifurcation theory of piecewise smooth differential equations and maps.
2018Alex JamesThis award recognises Alex James for her contributions in mathematical modelling ranging from the theoretical, such as Lévy walks and complex ecological systems, to the very applied, such as masting and snail dynamics.
2018Carlo LaingThis award recognises Carlo Laing for his sustained contributions to the field of mathematical neuroscience, and pioneering work in the study of coupled oscillator networks.
2017Igor KlepThis award recognises Igor Klep for deep and fundamental advances in real algebraic geometry and its application to diverse fields including operator theory, optimization, free analysis, convexity, and von Neumann algebras.
2016David BryantThis award recognises David Bryant for work developing mathematical, statistical and computational tools for evolutionary biology, and work drawing on evolutionary biology to develop new theories in mathematics.
2016Bernd KrauskopfThis award recognises Bernd Krauskopf for outstanding contributions to dynamical systems, especially bifurcation theory and its application to diverse physical phenomena.
2015Hinke OsingaThis award recognises Hinke Osinga for pioneering work on theory and computational methods in dynamical systems and its applications in biology and engineering.
2014Dimitri LeemansThis award recognises Dimitri Leemans for his striking contributions to algebraic combinatorics that combine techniques from algebra, graph theory, combinatorics and number theory for the exploration and classification of highly symmetric geometric structures.
2013Steven GalbraithThis award recognises Steven Galbraith for applying deep ideas from number theory and algebraic geometry to Public Key Cryptography to achieve world leading processing speeds without compromising security.
2012Ben MartinThis award recognises Ben Martin's outstanding and broad contributions to algebra including the application of geometric invariant theory to algebraic groups, the geometry of spherical buildings, and the representation growth of groups.
2012Tom ter ElstThis award recognises Tom ter Elst for his deep and sustained contributions to the analysis and understanding of elliptic operators, and associated evolution processes.
2011Shaun CooperThis award recognises Shaun's sustained generation of significant and original contributions to number theory, particularly in the areas of elliptic functions, theta functions, and modular forms.
2010Charles SempleThis award recognises Charles Semple’s landmark contributions to combinatorics, and in particular matroid theory, as well as leading work in phylogenetics and computational biology.
2009André NiesThis award recognises André Nies’s special creativity and highly influential contributions in the area of mathematical logic and in particular its application to questions of computability, complexity, and randomness.
2008Mike HendyFor his innovative mathematical approach to molecular ecology and evolution which has transformed the field. His seminal work on the Hadamard transform—used to separate out pertinent signals in evolutionary data—is now an integral part of phylogenetic software internationally and has contributed to the solution of several fundamental problems
2007Ernie KalninsFor his wide ranging, prolific and significant contributions to mathematics, especially in his research on symmetries of partial differential equations, separable coordinates and superintegrable systems.
2006Robert AldredFor his leading work in Combinatorics and Graph Theory. In particular his near complete solution of the vertex colouring/edge partition problem, the characterisation of regular graphs which admit at most one 2-factor as well as his recent work on the Path Partition Conjecture from the early 80s by resolving (in the negative) a strong form of this conjecture.
2006Mick RobertsFor his pioneering and practical work in Mathematical Epidemiology, his development of realistic physiologically based models of the incidence and spread of infectious diseases and his work on parasite transmission on pasture, all of which has attracted international recognition.
2005Robert McLachlanFor creative, pioneering work leading to deep advances in the theory of geometric numerical integration, and its application in the study of dynamical systems.
2005James SneydFor extensive and celebrated contributions in mathematical biology, demonstrating approaches that combine originality with biological realism.
2004Eamonn O'BrienFor outstanding achievements in using computation, backed up by deep algebraic theory, to solve long-standing and difficult problems in group theory.
2003Rod GoverFor highly original contributions in conformal differential geometry, that has led to the solution of some outstanding and difficult problems.
2002Bakhadyr KhoussainovFor his contributions to computable model theory and the theory of automatic structures.
2001Warren MoorsFor his impressive body of interconnected research work on the geometry and topology of Banach spaces, related questions of set-theoretic topology and especially non-smooth analysis and optimization where a number of deep insights of a foundational nature have been achieved.
2000Graham WeirFor his wide-ranging in-depth contributions to applied mathematical modelling covering a diverse range of phenomena including geosciences, structure of materials, corrosion theory, and the flow of granular material.
1999Mike SteelFor his fundamental contributions to the mathematical understanding of phylogeny, demonstrating a capacity for hard creative work in combinatorics and statistics and an excellent understanding of the biological implications of his results.
1998Jianbei AnFor his contributions to the study of modular representations of groups, in which he has established his leading expertise through a combination of deep understanding, ingenuity and technical skill.
1997Peter LorimerFor a lifetime of achievements in mathematical research, especially for his contributions to the application of group theory in geometry and combinatorics, and to the structure and classification of finite projective planes.
1996Mavina VamanamurthyFor his prolific and far-reaching work in analysis and topology, especially for his contributions to the theory of quasiconformal mappings and special functions; contributions that are characterized by both analytic ingenuity and geometric insight.
1996Geoff WhittleFor his work on matroids and other combinatorial structures, in which he has contributed fruitful ideas and found beautiful new results; placing him in the forefront of recent workers on difficult problems of matroid representation.
1995Vladimir PestovFor his creative and ingenious research in areas ranging from topological groups and Lie theory to the nonstandard analysis of superspace, in which he has solved long-standing open problems as well as demonstrating his breadth and depth of understanding and a gift for elegant and colourful exposition.
1995Neil WatsonFor an outstanding series of research articles on harmonic functions and potential theory, in which he has introduced new ideas and tools, and deep analyses, that have resulted in new and improved approaches to classical theorems and led to their generalisation to more abstract situations.
1994Gaven MartinFor fundamental contributions in analysis, especially in complex analysis, requiring a careful and inventive blending of algebraic, analytic, and topological ideas, with applications in diverse areas ranging from differential equations, through hyperbolic geometric to low-dimensional topology.
1993Marston ConderFor research exhibiting insight and originality in solving problems in algebra and combinatorics, in which, by his outstanding skills in machine computation, he has demonstrated the effectiveness of the computer when guided by real intelligence.
1992Rod DowneyFor penetrating and prolific investigations that have made him a leading expert in many aspects of recursion theory, effective algebra and complexity.
1992Vernon SquireFor major contributions to the science of ocean wave-ice interaction, ranging from the theoretical and mathematical to the experimental and practical aspects, that have made him the leading consultant in this field
1991John ButcherFor establishing new fundamental connections between analytic stability properties and algebraic properties of numerical methods for the solution of nonlinear differential equations; for implementing new methods; and for an outstanding monograph on Runge-Kutta and general linear methods.
1991Rob GoldblattFor outstanding work in generalisations and applications of modal logic, including four books displaying a remarkable mastery of diverse aspects of mathematics from programming to space-time geometry.

Recipients of the Early Career Research Award

2023Brendan HardingFor significant contributions to a broad range of fields including fluid dynamics, numerical analysis and fractal geometry. Recent work on inertial particle focusing in curved duct geometries exemplifies his ability to tackle complex problems and extract far-reaching results.
2023Rachelle Binny For a blend of application-driven modelling and theoretical advances in spatial moment dynamics. Her work has driven advances in applied mathematics, as well as having impact in real-world applications including New Zealand’s COVID-19 response.
2022Priya SubramanianFor her insightful contributions to the analysis of pattern-forming systems via the development of models, theory and numerical methods for the characterisation and classification of emerging complex spatiotemporal patterns, including in thermoacoustics and soft matter crystallisation.
2021Martino LupiniDr Lupini pursues research in disparate areas of mathematics including functional analysis, dynamical systems, algebraic topology, combinatorics, and mathematical logic. He has made unique contributions to many fields by making connections between them.
2020Geertrui Van de VoordeFor profound contributions to finite geometry, particularly creative and foundational analyses of linear sets and their applications to coding theory.
2020Gabriel VerretFor contributions to discrete mathematics and group theory, including the introduction of new approaches that have led to many new discoveries and the answers to long-standing questions.
2019No award.
2018Fabien MontielFor outstanding contributions to the development of mathematical and computational methods in wave scattering theory and his innovative approach to modelling the propagation of ocean waves in ice-covered seas.
2017Brendan CreutzFor his outstanding work on local-global questions on diophantine equations, in particular his resolution of a 50 year old question of Cassels and the development of novel computational techniques to study the arithmetic of algebraic curves and surfaces.
2016Alexander MelnikovFor highly original contributions to the theory of computability in algebra and topology.
2015Adam DayFor fundamental contributions to the theory of algorithmic randomness and computability including the solution of the random covering problem.
2014David SimpsonFor his contributions to the analysis of the effects of randomness and uncertainties in nonsmooth dynamical systems.
2013Florian BeyerFor his contributions to the understanding of the global structure of cosmological solutions of Einstein’s equations using numerical and analytical methods, and, in particular, for the proof of the wellposedness of the singular initial-value-problem for Fuchsian PDEs.
2012Mark HolmesFor rapidly becoming a world expert in the theory of random walks, and in the analysis of high-dimensional models in statistical physics.
2011Claire PostlethwaiteThe award recognises Claire's enormous progress in applying mathematics to the study of animal movement, and for her development of fundamental ideas in applied dynamical systems.
2010Mihály KovácsFor his innovative research in the field of stochastic partial differential equations, particularly their numerical approximation.
2009Stephen MarslandFor outstanding work in many areas of computational and applied mathematics, including self-organizing networks, machine learning, image registration, and generalized Euler equations.
2008Barbara HollandFor her groundbreaking work in interpreting information of historical and biological importance in comparisons of genetic sequence data, and for her pioneering development of phylogenetic networks that succeeded where simple optimisation models failed in identifying conflicts and in unmasking the more interesting biological evidence.
2007Noam GreenbergFor his discovery of new natural definable classes which capture the dynamics of constructions arising from computability theory, his studies of real-valued measures on the continuum and his use of delicate inductive arguments to exhibit links between high compressibility and low computational power.
2007Catherine McCartinFor her fundamental contributions to the development of efficient algorithms for computational problems in a variety of areas, and for her development of theoretical frameworks for parameterized counting problems and for parameterized approximation problems.

Recipients of the Gillian Thornley Award

2023Sina GreenwoodFor her demonstrated commitment to improving learning outcomes for Māori and Pacific students for over 20 years, with scores of students having benefited from the programmes and initiatives that Sina has had the determination and perseverance to deliver. She has also demonstrated outstanding leadership in this domain and is currently the Associate Dean Pacific in the Faculty of Science at the University of Auckland and led the development of a Pacific Strategy for Science.
2022Jeanette McLeod and Philip WilsonFor their outstanding contributions to mathematics and science communication. Jeanette and Phil are the brains and hands behind the highly successful Maths Craft initiative, which has reached thousands of people of all ages at its public events and workshops since 2016 and through the Maths Craft in a Box project in 2021 and 2022. Jeanette and Phil’s dedication and brilliant communication of mathematics to the general public have had demonstrable effects in promoting mathematics and in making the wider public aware of its beauty and usefulness for everyone.
2021Ross AtkinsFor outstanding service in support mathematics in Aotearoa NZ through his work with the NZ Mathematical Olympiad Committee. Ross has volunteered with the NZMOC since 2017. In that time, he has introduced innovations in the training programme, initiated a NZ Mathematical Olympiad competition, and provided strong leadership as team leader or deputy team leader for four International Mathematical Olympiads.
2020Liz AckerleyFor her work with mathematically-promising secondary school students. Liz has taught, mentored, inspired, guided, and cared for over a thousand young mathematics students over almost a quarter of a century through the University of Canterbury’s Maths 199 course, providing a bridge for these students to university mathematics.
2020Rachel PassmoreFor sustained and impactful contributions to improving access to mathematics and the quality of mathematics teaching at secondary school level in New Zealand. Rachel has been the driving force behind numerous initiatives to provide continuing education opportunities for mathematics school teachers and to improve access to study opportunities involving mathematics and statistics for students from a wide range of backgrounds.

Recipients of the Kalman Prize for Best Paper

2023Marston Conder, Jin-Xin Zhou, Yan-Quan Feng and Mi-Mi Zhang Edge-transitive bi-Cayley graphs, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B. 145 (2020), 264--306.
2022C.M. Postlethwaite and A.M. Rucklidge.Stability of cycling behaviour near a heteroclinic network model of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock. Nonlinearity, 35, 1702, 2022.
2021Robert M. Guralnick, Martin W. Liebeck, E.A. O’Brien, Aner Shalev and Pham Huu Tiep.Surjective word maps and Burnside’s paqb theorem. Inventiones Mathematicae 213 (2018), 589–695.
2020Melissa TacyLp estimates for joint quasimodes of semiclassical pseudo-differential operators. Israel Journal of Mathematics 232 (2019), 401–425.
2019Alexander Melnikov and Keng Meng Ng.Computable torsion abelian groups. Advances in Mathematics 325 (2018), 864-907.
2018Laurent Bienvenu, Noam Greenberg, Antonin Kucera, Andre Nies and Dan Turetsky. Coherent randomness tests and computing the K-trivial sets. J. European Math. Society 18 (2016), 773-812.
2017Jonathan H. Brown, Lisa Orloff Clark, Cynthia Farthing and Aidan Sims. Simplicity of algebras associated to etale groupoids. Semigroup Forum 88 (2014), 433-452.
2016Timothy H. Marshall and Gaven J. Martin. Minimal co-volume hyperbolic lattices II: Simple torsion in a Kleinian group. Annals of Mathematics 176 (2012), 261-301.

Recipients of the Aitken Prize

2023Juan Patino-EcheverriaAucklandTransitions to wild chaos in a 4D Lorenz-like system
2022Emma HoganCanterburyThe intersection of bicircular and lattice path matroids
2022Pedro RossettoOtagoMagnetically confined mountains on neutron stars
2021No award.
2020Pedro Henrique Barboza RossettoOtagoChaos in Plane Fronted Gravitational Waves
2019Martin BachratyAucklandSkew morphisms of finite groups
2018Pascal Eun Sig CheonAucklandDomain truncation in pipeline monitoring problems
2017Jesse HartAucklandNotions of transfinite diameter on affine algebraic varieties
2016Naomi GendlerAucklandPulse Dynamics of Fibre Lasers with Saturable Absorbers
2015Andrew KeaneAucklandBifurcation analysis of a model for the El Niño Southern Oscillation
2014Timm TreskatisCanterburyAccelerated gradient vs. primal-dual methods in nonsmooth optimisation
2013Chris StevensOtagoThe Friedrich-Nagy gauge for colliding plane gravitational waves
2013Timm TreskatisCanterburyTrust-region SQP methods for numerical simulations of viscoplastic flows
2012Stefanie HittmeyerAucklandUntangling Wild Chaos
2012Jennifer CreaserAucklandThe Lorenz System Near the Loss of the Foliation Condition
2011Edoardo PersichettiAucklandCoding theory and cryptography: New perspectives
2010Rachael TappendenCanterburyExtensions of compressed sensors
2009Michael SmithAucklandVibration of floating and submerged elastic plates
2009Shannon EzzatCanterburyRepresentation growth of the Heisenberg group over quadratic integers
2008Mareike FischerCanterburyCurious properties of Maximum Parsimony in estimating evolutionary trees and ancestral sequence states
2007Peter HumphriesCanterburyA basis exchange property for matroids
2007Ratneesh SuriMasseyA real options approach to fisheries
2006Kevin ByardMasseyApplications of qualified residue difference sets
2005Amanda ElvinMasseyThe role of gap junctions in a neural field model
2005Elan GinAucklandCalcium waves and buffers
2004Joanne MannMasseyTo vaccinate or not to vaccinate?
2003Cynthia WangMasseyModelling a plate of arbitrary shape in infinitely deep water using a higher order method
2002Sivajah SomasundaramWaikatoSome recent results concerning weak Asplund spaces
2001Brian van DamAucklandThe construction method of resolutions and Dowker spaces
2000Patrick RynhartMasseyStatic liquid bridges
2000Barbara HollandMasseyMedian networks: A visual representation of ancient Adelie penguin DNA
2000Sivajah SomasundaramWaikatoCover semi-complete topological groups
1999Britta BasseCanterburyMathematical modelling for conservation: predator control via secondary poisoning
1999Jamie SneddonAucklandDomination conditions for tournaments
1998Charles SempleVictoriaExcluded minors for matroid representability
1997Robyn CurtisAucklandSubgraphs of hypercubes with no small cycles
1997Louise ParsonsAuckland
1996Anton RavirajMasseyGauss's equation and Backlund transformations
1996Thomasin SmithMasseyOn arithmetic degree theory
1995Chris StephensCanterburyGlobal optimisation requires global information