The Smith Prize fund was founded by bequest of
Robert Smith upon his death in 1768, having by his will left £3,500 of
South Sea Company stock to the University. Every year two or more junior
Bachelor of Arts students who had made the greatest progress in mathematics and natural philosophy were to be awarded a prize from the fund. The prize was awarded every year from 1769 to 1998 except 1917. From 1769 to 1885, the prize was awarded for the best performance in a series of examinations. In 1854
George Stokes included an examination question on a particular theorem that
William Thomson had written to him about, which is now known as
Stokes' theorem.
T. W. Körner notes Only a small number of students took the Smith's prize examination in the nineteenth century. When
Karl Pearson took the examination in 1879, the examiners were
Stokes,
Maxwell,
Cayley, and
Todhunter and the examinees went on each occasion to an examiner's dwelling, did a morning paper, had lunch there and continued their work on the paper in the afternoon. In 1885, the examination was renamed
Part III, (now known as the
Master of Advanced Study in Mathematics for students who studied outside of Cambridge before taking it) and the prize was awarded for the best submitted essay rather than examination performance. According to
Barrow-Green By fostering an interest in the study of applied mathematics, the competition contributed towards the success in mathematical physics that was to become the hallmark of Cambridge mathematics during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Reorganization of prizes In 1998 the Smith Prize, Rayleigh Prize and J. T. Knight Prize were replaced by the
Smith-Knight Prize and
Rayleigh-Knight Prize, the standard for the former being higher than that required for the latter. ==Smith's Prize recipients==