About the Prize
The Edward Fraenkel Prize, named after our eminent former colleague Edward Fraenkel (1927-2019), is awarded for the best PhD Thesis in the Department. It is awarded yearly by a Departmental Committee consisting of the Awards Committee, the Head of Department and the Postgraduate DoS in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The winner will receive a £100 prize.
Previous winners
- Martin Prigent (2020-2021)
- Tom Finn (2021-2022)
- Calla Tschanz (2022-2023)
- Paul Secular (2023-2024)
- Flora Poon and Alex Rudge (2024-2025)
Guidance for nominations
The nomination process is overseen by the Postgraduate Research Director of Studies, currently Prof Gregory Sankaran (masgks@bath.ac.uk).
Nominators should answer “why is this a great thesis?” and they should think carefully about the following points before and whilst writing their nomination:
i) The case for nomination is intended to help the awards committee decide on the best thesis, whilst comparing students across disciplines. Therefore, it is essential that the information provided is non-technical and explains why the student’s thesis is better than other theses in their discipline.
ii) The nominator should consider the following criteria for excellence: Impact of the thesis (academic, industrial, etc); Writing style (clarity and the ability to compel the reader); Signs of independence in the work (sole authored publications which have arisen, is the student working slightly outside of the supervisor’s tested areas of expertise); Intellectual excellence (has the student proven any old conjectures made by other authors, no need to discuss results in any detail). These are the four criteria which the awarding committee will evaluate.
iii) The nominator should endeavor to obtain input or soundbites from the supervisor and the external examiner. Metrics are occasionally useful: did the external say “this is the best thesis I have examined out of the 50 of my career”? Did the supervisor say “this is my best student I have supervised”? Has the student been invited to describe their thesis work at any international conferences or national seminar series? All other measures of success will be useful, and they should be placed in a context which allows them to be compared across fields.