Membership | Governance | Meetings | Publications | Education | Resources | Prizes | Job Listings

Prizes

The Society for Mathematical Biology awards a number of prizes including the Akira Okubo Prize, the Art Winfree Prize, and the Lee Segel Prize.

Akira Okubo Prize

The Akira Okubo Fund was established in memory of Akira Okubo, who made major contributions to many fields, including mathematical ecology and oceanography. Okubo was widely recognized for his scientific work, as well as for his exceptional humanity.
The objective of the Akira Okubo Prize is to honor a living scientist for outstanding and innovative theoretical work, for establishing superb conceptual ideas, for solving tough theoretical problems, and/or for uniting theory and data to advance a biological subject.
The Akira Okubo prize is jointed administered by the Society for Mathematical Biology and the Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology.
Additional details, including how to nominate individuals, is available at http://www.smb.org/prizes/okubo.shtml.
Nominations have been closed. For previous information, please see http://www.smb.org/prizes/okubo_call.shtml.

Previous winners:
1999 - Martin Nowak
2001 - Simon Levin
2003 - Jonathan Sherratt
2005 - J. D. Murray
2007 - Fugo Takasu
2009 - Hans Othmer

Art Winfree Prize

Call for Nominations

The Board of Directors of the Society for Mathematical Biology, in memory of the contributions to mathematical biology by Arthur Winfree, establishes a Prize in his honor, to be called the Winfree Prize. It will honor a theoretician whose research has inspired significant new biology. The prize will be offered every other year, starting with the 2009 Annual Meeting. Nominations of individuals to be considered for the prize may focus on a single paper or series of papers which illustrate the close connection between theory and experiment, or may be based upon a larger body of theoretical work produced by the individual which has led to significant new biological understanding affecting observation/experiments. The recipient will decided by a Committee of the Society, consisting of three individuals appointed by the President, one year before the Prize is to be awarded. Nominations will be solicited from Society members and the mathematical biology community at large.

Background: In the Fall of 2002, theoretical biology lost one of its most creative luminaries when Arthur Winfree passed away from an aggressive brain tumor. Winfree was one of the legendary figures in the field, one of the very few who combined brilliant theory with imaginative and masterful experiments. Many careers were built on his pioneering work in biological periodicity and pattern formation. Winfree's genius was frequently hidden by his modest, even self effacing manner. Beyond his scientific contributions, he was an exemplary scientist and human being. His generosity and kindness to his colleagues and students is sorely missed.

Previous winners:
2009 - George Oster

Lee Segel Prize

To honor the enormous contribution that Lee Segel made to the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology and the field of mathematical biology as a whole, Springer, in partnership with the Society of Mathematical Biology, is funding a series of prizes. A prize of 5,000 dollars will be given for the best original research paper published (awarded every 2 years), a prize of 3,000 dollars for the best student research paper (awarded every 2 years), and a prize of 4,000 dollars for the best review paper (awarded every 3 years). A committee appointed by the SMB Board of Directors and the Editor-in-Chief will be set up to judge and award prizes, taking on board advice of referees and referee reports. All articles accepted from January 2006 will be considered. The first winners of the best original paper and best student paper will be announced at the SMB meeting in 2008. The winner of the best review paper will be announced at the SMB meeting in 2009.

Previous winners:

Best Student Paper in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

• 2008 - Emma Y. Jin and Christian M. Reidys, "Asymptotic Enumeration of RNA Structures with Pseudoknotsâ"

Best Paper in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

• 2008 - Tomas de-Camino-Beck and Mark A. Lewis, "A New Method for Calculating Net Reproductive Rate from Graph Reduction with Applications to the Control of Invasive Species