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David Crighton Medal award

The David Crighton Medal award was instituted in 2002 by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society in memory of Professor David George Crighton FRS. The award is made by the Councils of the Institute and the Society, with the first award in 2003. Since 2015. the award has been made biennially. The silver gilt medal is awarded to a mathematician who is normally resident in the mathematical community represented by the two organisations for services both to mathematics and to the mathematical community.

2021 David Crighton Medal:

Caroline SeriesWe are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2021 David Crighton Medal is Professor Caroline Series (University of Warwick). This is in recognition of her fundamental and beautiful results connecting geometry and dynamical systems, and her outstanding service to the mathematical community, including her pioneering work to support the careers of women in mathematics.

Professor Series' early work involved coding the dynamics of geodesic flows on surfaces, developing techniques of Rufus Bowen, and led to an invitation to speak at the ICM in 1986. There is now a substantial body of work, carried out by groups around the world, that can be traced back to the theory and connection between areas that was established by Series in this early work.

Subsequently, Series' interests moved to Kleinian groups, and she made major contributions to the study of spaces of certain parametrised families of groups, such as the Maskit slice, the Riley slice and other higher dimensional examples. She showed how the geometry of the group action, and in particular beautiful patterns in its limit set, vary as one moves through the parameter space. Her work has been recognised by numerous awards throughout her career and, in 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Alongside her research, Professor Series has provided outstanding service to the mathematical community on numerous committees and panels both nationally and internationally. She served as President of the LMS from 2017 to 2019, having earlier served the Society in numerous ways. Of particular note is the impact of her work to improve gender equality, where she has continually acted as an initiator of new activities at an international level. 

See the full citation for Professor Series here.

2023 David Crighton Medal:

Nominations for the 2023 Medal are now open. See details here.

General regulations:

  • The David Crighton Medal award was instituted by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the London Mathematical Society in memory of Professor David George Crighton FRS.
  • The award of the David Crighton Medal shall be considered biennially by the Councils of the Institute and the Society, with the award being in odd-numbered years.
  • No person shall be eligible to receive the Medal more than once. The medal may not be awarded to previous recipients of the Gold Medal of the Institute or the De Morgan Medal of the Society.
  • The Medal, which shall be silver gilt, shall be awarded to a mathematician who is normally resident in the mathematical community represented by the two organisations on the 1st January of the year of the award.
  • The Medal shall be awarded to an eminent mathematician for services both to mathematics and to the mathematical community.
  • Any amendment to these Regulations for the award of the Medal shall be made at the October meetings of both Councils in any year, at which the proposed amendment must receive the support of an absolute majority of those present at each meeting, whether voting or not, in order to take effect.

The award:

The medal-winner shall normally be awarded his or her Medal at a joint meeting of the Institute and the Society held in year (X+1), and be invited to give a lecture.

Past Crighton Medal winners: