This prize, for outstanding contributions to the Society’s research publications, is fittingly named for the founding editors of those journals. The people it honours represent the three major aspects in the development of Australian mathematics.

• Thomas Gerald Room (1902–1986), a geometer, was professor of pure mathematics in the University of Sydney from 1935 to 1968. Born in London and educated at Cambridge, he, like all the earliest professors in Australia’s first universities, was selected for the post by British mathematicians or on the advice of British mathematicians from mostly British applicants. He worked enthusiastically for the formation of the Society in 1956, and was appointed its Publications Secretary. The Journal first appeared in August 1959 and Room was its editor until 1965.
• Bernhard Hermann Neumann (1909–2002) was born in Berlin and represents the wave of refugee mathematicians that came to Australia in the 1930s and 40s, many of whom were appointed to chairs around the country. Neumann was the foundation professor of mathematics at the Australian National University. He was appointed in 1962, having left Germany in 1933 with a doctorate from the University of Berlin, and was at the University of Manchester, where his eminence in group theory was established, before coming permanently to Australia. Neumann was a tireless worker for all facets of Australian mathematics. In 1969 he was appointed editor of the Society’s Bulletin, a journal which would insist on submissions in near-final form for which rapid publication (of those which were accepted) would be ensured. He had argued himself for this concept, and remained its editor for ten years.
• John Joseph Mahony (1929–1992) was born in Melbourne and gained his PhD at the University of Melbourne. He exemplifies the Australian-born mathematicians who now dominate the profession in their home country. Mahony was for a few years professor of applied mathematics at the University of Queensland before taking a similar position at the University of Western Australia, which he held from 1965 until his death. The Society’s Journal (Series B), later called the ANZIAM Journal, specialising in applied mathematics, first appeared in 1975 and Mahony was its editor until 1978.

The Mahony–Neumann–Room prize alternates round these three journals, rewarding the ‘best paper’ published during the past few years. The prize carries a monetary award of $1,000.

Winners of the Mahony–Neumann–Room prize

Prize Rules:

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