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The Blue Hat Prize

The Blue Hat Prize

Who is the prize awarded to?

The Blue Hat Prize is a prize given to the best talk by a non-student at the Annual Meeting of the AustMS, judged by the students.

Information

In 2011 the AustMS meeting was at University of Western Australian, directed by David Pask. They wanted locals to be identifiable so they could be asked for directions, etc. David got hats instead of T-shirts. (Great idea!) That year, students decided to take a leaf out of the ANZIAM Cherry Ripe Prize and flip the BH Neumann Prize by judging the ‘best talk by a non-student’. Criteria were not specified. However, shortly before they were due to award the accolade, they realised that they had no prize! David gave them a spare hat and the rest is history.

Sometimes the blue hat has been purchased from a $2 shop and has featured glitter or flashing lights. The 2017 hat was a very stylish satin number, the students having access to a large shopping centre close to Macqurie University! The award was given to Professor Georgia Benkart, who was, coincidentally, the Hanna Neumann lecturer and by all reports a delighted recipient. — Gazette of the Australian Mathematical Society, 45:1 (2018) pp. 22–23

Past winners

Year

Winner

Institution

Citation

2020

Jeffrey Hogan

2019

Timothy Trudgian

2018

Ben Burton

2017

Georgia Benkart

2016

Matthew Kennedy

2015

Manjul Bhargava

2014

Nicolas Monod

2013

Marcel Jackson

2012

Norman Do

2011

Michael Barnsley