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

Status

The 2023–24 Mike Smith Student Prize is now accepting submissions.

Deadline

9 am AEDT Monday 15 January 2024.

Criteria

The prize will be awarded for an essay based on original, unpublished research undertaken whilst enrolled as a student (postgraduate or undergraduate) at any tertiary educational institution worldwide.

The essay should range from 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 explore any aspect of the history of Australian science, including medicine and technology or Australian environmental history. The term ‘Australia’ may encompass essays focusing on the Australian region, broadly defined, which includes Oceania. We also welcome essays that compare issues and subjects associated with Australia to those of other places.

The winning entry, if it is within a suitable subject area, may be considered for publication in ‘Historical Records of Australian Science.’ The journal has previously published a virtual issue showcasing six previous essays awarded the Mike Smith Prize.

Award

Cash prize of $3,000, with minor prizes awarded at the panel's discretion.

Application process

Applications should be submitted to nc@science.org.au by 9am AEDT on Monday, January 15, 2024. Materials to be submitted in the following order:

1. Covering email, which should include:
   • Full name
   • Contact details (postal and e-mail addresses and telephone number)
   • Title of submission
   • University course (and year of course if undergraduate)
   • Student number
2. Essay in PDF format
3. A PDF letter or an attached email from the applicant's academic supervisor, confirming that the essay meets the eligibility criteria outlined above.
4. The judging panel will consist of three members:
   • Chair (or nominee), National Committee for History and Philosophy of Science (Chair of the panel)
   • Editor (or nominee), Historical Records of Australian Science
   • Senior Curator (or nominee), National Museum of Australia

The winner will be contacted by email, and the prize will be presented and announced on the websites of the National Museum of Australia and the Australian Academy of Science in mid-2024.

Judges’ decisions are final. The judges retain the right to split the prize, or not to award a prize. The Academy and the National Museum of Australia are not able to engage in discussions or correspondence regarding the reasons for the success or non-success of a submission.

More information

For further information contact:

National Committees Office

nc@science.org.au

Past winners

• 2021–2022 first prizes:
  • Jessica Urwin—‘No time to waste’: Aboriginal resistance to Australia’s nuclear waste, 1998–2004
  • Margaret Williams—Biopolitics and the Bacillus: Sinophobia in an Epidemic of Bubonic Plague in Sydney, 1900–10.
• 2019–2020 first prize: Karen Twigg of La Trobe University—The Green Years: the role of abundant water in shaping rural women’s experience in the 1950s
• 2017 first prize: Martin Bush of Swinburne University of Technology and Museum Victoria—The Proctor-Parkes Incident: Politics, Protestants and Popular Astronomy in Australia in 1880
• 2017 highly commended: Jennifer Bowen of the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical and Philosophical Studies—Riding the Waves: Professor T. H. Laby as Imperial Scientist and Radio Visionary
• 2013 winning entry: Christina Dyson of the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning—Living fossils and mouth-watering stones: manipulating history in the post-WWII natural Australian plant garden
• 2013 joint runner up: Alessandro Antonello from the Australian National University—Repelling the assault on the unknown: Australia and the International Geophysical Year in Antarctica
• 2013 joint runner up: Sonya Duus from the Australian National University—Contesting coal: echoes through time
• 2011 first prize: Christian O'Brien of the Australian National University's School of History—A brief history of the monsoon (PDF 648 KB)
• 2011 second prize: Sonya Duus of the Australian National University's Fenner School of Environment and Society—Buried sunshine, sacrifical lands and industrial slaves: an environmental history of coal in Australia
• 2011 highly commended: Cameron Muir of the Australian National University with his essay—Wheat for a white world: social and ecological relationships on the agricultural frontier in the early 20th century
• 2010 winning entry: Luke Keogh of the University of Queensland—Duboisia Pituri—A Natural History
• 2009 joint winning entry: Jodi Frawley of the University of Sydney—Trans/Nationalising wattle from the Sydney Botanic Gardens
• 2009 joint winning entry: Benedict Taylor from the University of New South Wales—It is curious how the convict loves a pet: animals in Australian prisons and penal discourse
• 2007 winning entry: Coral Dow—A ‘Sportsman’s Paradise’: The Effects of Hunting on the Avifauna of the Gippsland Lakes
• 2006 joint winning entry: Rachel Sanderson—Many Beautiful Things: Colonial Botanists’ accounts of the North Queensland rainforests
• 2006 joint winning entry: Sara Maroske—Ferdinand Mueller and the Shape of Nature: Nineteenth-century Plant Classification