News for November 2011
2012 Cushing Memorial Prize -- Call for Nominations
The family, students, friends, and colleagues of Jim Cushing are pleased once again to solicit nominations for the James T. Cushing Prize in the History and Philosophy of Physics. In recognition of Jim’s well-known role as a nurturer of new talent in the profession, this annual prize is intended to recognize and reward the work of younger scholars. The next winner will receive $1,000 and an invitation to deliver a paper in the University of Notre Dame's History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium series during the 2012-2013 academic year.
Work is eligible by nomination only. Eligible are all papers in the history and philosophy of physics published by a younger scholar within the three years prior to the current call for nominations (i.e., published no earlier than October 2008). Without defining "younger scholar," our intention is to favor work produced by scholars who are no more than five years or so beyond completion of the Ph.D. or, in a comparable way, new to the fields of the history and philosophy of physics.
Nominated work will be evaluated by a committee drawn from the members of the Advisory Committee. A nomination should consist of a brief description of the significance of the nominated work and such information about the author as the nominator might think helpful to the evaluation committee (e.g., an abbreviated c.v.). The deadline for receipt of nominations is 15 March 2012. The winner will be announced in May 2012.
Nominations will be accepted by mail, fax, and email.
By mail:
- Cushing Memorial Prize Nominations
- History and Philosophy of Science Graduate Program
- 346 O’Shaughnessy
- University of Notre Dame
- Notre Dame, IN 46556
By fax:
574-631-7418 ("Cushing Memorial Prize Nomination" on cover sheet)
By email:
Please be sure to include the following information:
- The name, institutional affiliation, phone number, fax number (if available), mailing address, and email address for both the nominator and the nominee.
- A full reference to the published work (i.e., journal name, volume, page numbers, URL or pdf if available, etc.).
For more information:
- Phone: Darrin Snyder Belousek at 419-221-1856 or Don Howard at 574-631-7547.
- Email: Cushing.Prize.1@nd.edu
- Website: http://www.nd.edu/~cushpriz/
Lakatos Award 2011
The London School of Economics and Political Science announces that the Lakatos Award, of £10,000 for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, will not be awarded in 2011.
The Management Committee for the Lakatos Award has considered the reports from the Selectors on the books shortlisted for the 2011 prize. While there is no doubt that all of the shortlisted books have their virtues, and that some make weighty contributions to the field, the overall view taken by the Management Committee on the basis of the Selectors' reports is that none quite meets the level of impact and significance required to merit the Award; and consequently no Award will be made this year.
The Lakatos Award is given for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted, in the form of a book published in English during the previous five years. It was made possible by a generous endowment from the Latsis Foundation. The Award is in memory of the former LSE professor, Imre Lakatos, and is administered by an international Management Committee organised from the LSE.
The Committee, chaired by John Worrall, decides the outcome of the Award competition on the advice of an international, independent and anonymous panel of Selectors.
Nominations can now be made for the 2012 Lakatos Award, and must be received by Friday 20th April 2012. The 2012 Award will be for a book published in English with an imprint from 2007-2012 inclusive. A book may, with the permission of the author, be nominated by any person of recognised standing within the profession.
For further details of the nomination procedure or more information on the Lakatos Award 2011, contact the Administrator, Chris Thompson at c.j.thompson@lse.ac.uk.
Imre Lakatos, who died in 1974 aged 51, had been Professor of Logic with special reference to the Philosophy of Mathematics at LSE since 1969. He joined the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method in 1960. Born in Hungary in 1922, he graduated (in Physics, Mathematics and Philosophy) from Debrecen University in 1944. He then joined the underground resistance. (His mother and grandmother perished in Auschwitz.) After the War, he was active in the Communist Party and had an influential position in the Ministry of Education. In 1950 he was arrested and spent the next three years as a political prisoner. After his release, he was given refuge in the Hungarian Academy of Science where he translated western works in science and mathematics into Hungarian. After the suppression of the Hungarian uprising he escaped to Vienna and from there, with the aid of a Rockefeller fellowship, on to Cambridge, England. He there wrote his (second) doctoral thesis out of which grew his famous Proofs and Refutations (Cambridge University Press, 1976). Two volumes of Philosophical Papers, edited by John Worrall and Gregory Currie, appeared in 1978, also from Cambridge University Press.
