Awards and Prizes

Mike Smith Student Prize for History of Australian Science or Australian Environmental History

The Mike Smith Student Prize for the History of Australian Science or Australian Environmental History is an essay prize awarded once every two years by the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science in partnership with the National Museum of Australia.

A cash prize of $3000 is awarded for original unpublished research undertaken whilst enrolled as a student (postgraduate or undergraduate) at any tertiary educational institution. Minor prizes may be awarded at the examining panel’s discretion.

The research should be presented as an essay 4000–8000 words in length (exclusive of endnotes). Essays must be written in English and fully documented following the style specified for the Australian Academy of Science’s journal, Historical Records of Australian Science.

Essays may deal with any aspect of the history of Australian science (including medicine and technology) or Australian environmental history. ‘Australia’ can include essays that focus on the Australian region, broadly defined, including Oceania. Essays that compare issues and subjects associated with Australia with those of other places also are welcomed.

The winning entry, if it is in a suitable subject area, may be considered for publication in Historical Records of Australian Science.

For further information contact:
National Committees Office
E nc@science.org.au
T +[61 2] 6201 9400

Winners published in Historical Records of Australian Science

2017: Martin Bush
The Proctor-Parkes Incident: Politics, Protestants and Popular Astronomy in Australia in 1880
vol. 28(1), 6–36
Full Text

2017: Jennifer Bowen (Highly commended)
Riding the Waves: Professor T. H. Laby as Imperial Scientist and Radio Visionary
vol. 28(2), 91–98
Full Text

2010: Luke Keogh
Duboisia Pituri: A Natural History
vol. 22(2), 199–214
Full Text

2009: Jodi Frawley (Joint first prize)
Joseph Maiden and the National and Transnational Circulation of Wattle Acacia spp.
vol. 21(1), 35–54
Full Text

2006: Sara Maroske (Joint first prize)
Ferdinand Mueller and the Shape of Nature: Nineteenth-century Systems of Plant Classification
vol. 17(2), 147–168
Full Text

2006: Rachel Sanderson (Joint first prize)
Many Beautiful Things: Colonial Botanists’ Accounts of the North Queensland Rainforests
vol. 18(1), 1–18
Full Text