Nicholas J. Higham Prize for Research Impacting Scientific Software

Established in 2025, the prize is awarded every two years to an individual or team whose fundamental and novel research contributions in applied and computational mathematics have combined world-leading creativity and rigor in a manner that has substantially impacted widely used scientific computing software.

Announcement

  • The inaugural Nicholas J. Higham Prize for Research Impacting Scientific Software will be awarded in 2027.

Prize Description

The Nicholas J. Higham Prize for Research Impacting Scientific Software is awarded every two years to an individual or team whose fundamental and novel research contributions in applied and computational mathematics have combined world-leading creativity and rigor in a manner that has substantially impacted widely used scientific computing software. The prize recognizes primarily the excellence of the mathematical research and secondarily the extent to which that research has become embedded in state-of-the-art software packages.

The prize should be given for a single piece of work or a single body of work. The prize may be awarded to multiple individuals but only for contributions to a single piece of their collaborative work.

Read the full prize specifications.

Eligibility Criteria

The prize may be awarded to any individual or team who meets the general guidelines of the award.

Required Materials

  • Nominator’s letter of recommendation for candidate(s), including details of the relevant research publications and the software packages impacted
  • CV(s) of candidate(s)
  • Two or three letters of support from experts in the field

About the Award

The recipient of the Nicholas J. Higham Prize for Research Impacting Scientific Software shall receive a customized fountain pen, a cash award, and reasonable expenses for travel to the award ceremony from the prize fund. The amount of the award is $2,000.

If more than one person receives the prize, the cash award is to be divided equally among the recipients and reasonable travel expenses for one recipient to attend the award ceremony will be provided.

Award Date

The prize is awarded every two years. It will first be awarded in 2027.

Award Presentation

The prize will be awarded by the SIAM President at the SIAM Annual Meeting or at another major SIAM conference.

The announcement of the award will be in SIAM News, the SIAM website and released to other appropriate scientific journals, electronic newsletters, and major daily newspapers.

Award Fund

The prize is made possible by generous financial support from MathWorks and nAG.