George David Birkhoff Prize | SIAM
 

Featured News and Announcements

Celebrate Pi Day with Exclusive SIAM Offers
READ MORE
Congratulations to the SIAM Fellows Class of 2024!
READ MORE
SIAM Honors Women's History Month
READ MORE

Joint Prizes

George David Birkhoff Prize

Established in 1967, the prize honors George David Birkhoff (1884-1944), who served as the American Mathematical Society (AMS) President during 1925-1926. The prize is awarded every three years by SIAM and AMS for an outstanding contribution to applied mathematics. Nominations can be submitted via the AMS website.

Next Call for Nominations Opens: February 1, 2026

Prize Description


Prize Description

The George David Birkhoff Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to applied mathematics in the highest and broadest sense. The prize is administered by AMS and awarded jointly by SIAM and AMS.


Eligibility Criteria

A candidate must be a member of AMS or SIAM.


Required Materials

  • Nominator’s letter of recommendation for candidate
  • CV of the candidate
  • Proposed citation (up to 50 words)

Winner Announcement

Congratulations to the 2024 recipient, Ronald Coifman! Learn more about his accomplishments. 

~*Learn More*~



Prize Details

Prize Details

Read the full prize specifications.

Read More

Nomination Deadline Calendar

See all prizes with open calls for nominations.

View All

Selection Committee

About the Award


About the George David Birkhoff Prize


The George David Birkhoff Prize includes a $5,000 monetary award and a certificate containing the citation.

Award Date

The George David Birkhoff Prize will next be awarded in January 2027 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings.


Award Presentation

The award is presented at the Prize Session and Reception during the Joint Mathematics Meetings. The announcement of the award will appear in SIAM News, the SIAM website, and appropriate electronic media.


Award Fund

The initial funds for the prize were donated by the Birkhoff family. The funds are held and managed by the AMS.

Prize History



Prize History

Citation

The 2024 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Ronald Coifman for his profound impact on pure and applied harmonic analysis, and for the introduction of tools developed from these areas to address modern challenges of data science.

Selection Committee

Irene Fonseca (Chair)
Peter Constantin
Chi-Wang Shu

Citation

The 2021 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Gunther Uhlmann for his fundamental and insightful contributions to inverse problems and partial differential equations, as well as for his incisive work on boundary rigidity, microlocal analysis and cloaking.

Selection Committee

Irene Gamba (Chair)
Douglas Arnold
Aaron Fogelson

Citation

The 2018 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Bernd Sturmfels for his instrumental role in creating the field of applied algebraic geometry.

Selection Committee

Michael C. Reed (Chair)
Andrea Bertozzi
Kenneth Golden

Citation

The 2015 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Emmanuel Candès for his work on compressed sensing that has revolutionized signal processing and medical imaging and his related work on computational harmonic analysis, statistics and scientific computing.

Selection Committee

Russel Caflisch
Bjorn E. Enquist
Avi Wigderson

Citation

The 2012 AMS-SIAM George David Birkhoff Prize in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Bjorn Engquist for his contributions to a wide range of powerful computational methods over more than three decades.

Selection Committee

James Sethian (Chair)
Andrew J. Majda
Michael S. Waterman

Selection Committee

Peter W. Jones (Chair)
George C. Papanicolaou
Terence C. Tao

Selection Committee

Gunther Uhlmann (Chair)
Barbara L. Keyfitz
Charles S. Peskin

Selection Committee

Donald G. Saari (Chair)
Douglas N. Arnold
Paul H. Rabinowitz

Selection Committee

Ivo M. Babuska
Jurgen Moser
Srinivasa Varadhan

1994 Ivo Babuska and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
1988 Elliot Lieb
1983 Paul R. Garabedian
1978 Garrett Birkhoff, Mark Kac, and Clifford A. Truesdell
1973 Fritz John and James Serrin
1968 Jurgen Moser

Donate

Contact Prize Program