Index of Award-Winning Articles on History of Mathematics – The HOM SIGMAA Student Paper Contest in the History of Mathematics

HOM SIGMAA Student Paper Contest

For history of mathematics papers by undergraduates, sponsored by MAA’s Special Interest Group for the History of Mathematics.

2024

First Place: Mithra Karamchedu (Harvey Mudd College)
“A Mind, a Machine, and a Game in Between: Claude Shannon and the Origin of the Information Age”

Second Place: Y. Shane Wang (University of Toronto)
“Theories on the Origins of the Sexagesimal System”

Honorable Mention: David Forson (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Sangaku: The Mathematical Art of the Edo Period”

Honorable Mention: David Freeman (Lee University)
“Deconstructing Descartes: An Analysis of the Mathematical Influences on Descartes’ Philosophy”

2023

First Place: Adin Charles Tinsley (Stony Brook University)
“Nicole Oresme and the Revival of Medieval Mathematics”

2022

First Place: Rye Ledford (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"The Assumptive Attitudes of Western Scholars Regarding the Contributions of Mathematics from India: Assessing yukti-s from the Yuktibhāṣā of Jyeṣṭhadeva"

Second Place: Sarah Szafranski (University of Redlands)
"Estimations of \(\pi\): The Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics, The Gregory-Leibniz Series, and the Eurocentrism of Math History"

2021

First Place: Megan Ferguson (Adelphi University)
“The Suan shu shu and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art: A Comparison”

2020

First Place: Jeffrey Powers (Grand Rapids Community College)
“Did Archimedes Do Calculus?”

2019

First Place: Amanda Nethington (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"Achieving Philosophical Perfection: Omar Khayyam's Successful Replacement of Euclid's Parallel Postulate"

2018

First Place: Callie Lane (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"Race to Refraction: The Repeated Discovery of Snell's Law"

Second Place: Christen Peters (Lee University)
"The Reality of the Complex: The Discovery and Development of Imaginary Numbers"

Second Place: Rachel Talmadge (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"François Viète Uses Geometry to Solve Three Problems"

2017

First Place: Amanda Akin (Lee University)
“To Infinity and Beyond: A Historical Journey on Contemplating the Infinite”

First Place: Johann Gaebler (Harvard University)
“Traditionalism: 1894 to 1925”

First Place: Nathan Otten (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Huygens and The Value of all Chances in Games of Fortune”

2016

First Place: Brittany Anne Carlson (Salt Lake Community College)
“A Latent Element of Alice’s Agency in Wonderland: Conservative Victorian Mathematics”

First Place: William Cole (Lee University)
“The Evolution of the Circle Method in Additive Prime Number Theory”

2015

First Place: Samuel Patterson (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Bernard Bolzano, a Genius Unnoticed in His Time”

First Place: Briana Yankie (Lee University)
“Examining Disproved Mathematical Ideas through the Lens of Philosophy”

2014

First Place: Jenna Miller (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"Casting Light on the Statistical Life of Florence Nightingale"

First Place: Anna Riffe (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
"The Impossible Proof: An Analysis of Adrien-Marie Legendre's Attempts to Prove Euclid's Fifth Postulate."

Second Place: Paul Ayers (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Gabriel Cramer: Over 260 Years of Crushing the Unknowns"

Second Place: Mary Ruff (Colorado State University – Pueblo)
“Probability to 1750”

2013

First Place: Matthew Shives (Hood College)
"Paradigms and Mathematics: A Creative Perspective"

2012

First Place: Jesse Hamer (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Indivisibles and the Cycloid in the Early 17th Century”

Second Place: Kevin L. Wininger (Otterbein University)
“On the Foundations of X-Ray Computed Tomography in Medicine: A Fundamental Review of the 'Radon transform' and a Tribute to Johann Radon”

2011

First Place: Paul Stahl (University of Missouri - Kansas City)
“Kepler's Development of Mathematical Astronomy”

Second Place: Sarah Costrell (Brandeis University)
“Mathematics and Mathematical Thought in the Quadrivium of Isidore of Seville”

Second Place: Rick Hill (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis and the Roots of Modern Algebra”

2010

First Place: Jennifer Nielsen (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“The Heart is a Dust Board:  Abu’l Wafa Al-Buzjani, Dissection, Construction, and the Dialog Between Art and Mathematics in Medieval Islamic Culture”

First Place: Palmer Rampell (Phillips Academy and Harvard University)
“The Use of Similarity in Old Babylonian Mathematics”

First Place: Stefanie Streck (Pacific Lutheran University)
“The Fermat Problem”

2009

First Place: Nathan McLaughlin (University of Montana)
“The Mathematical Optics of Sir William Hamilton: Conical Refraction and Quaternions”

Second Place: Tim Chalberg (Pacific Lutheran University)
“Regression Analysis: A Powerful Tool and Riveting Drama”

Honorable Mention: Amy Buchmann (Chapman University)
“A Brief History of Quaternions and the Theory of Holomorphic Functions of Quaternionic Variables”

2008

First Place: Mame Maloney (University of Chicago)
“Constructivism: A Realistic Approach to Math?”

Second Place: Woody Burchett (Georgetown College)
“Thinking Inside the Box: Geometric Interpretation of Quadratic Problems in BM 13901”

Second Place: Cole McGee (Colorado State University – Pueblo)
“Jean Le Rond D'Alembert: Biography of a Mathematician, Philosophe, and a Man of Letters”

Honorable Mention: Mame Maloney (University of Chicago)
“Pathological Functions in the 18th and 19th Centuries”

2007

First Place: Rory Plante
“The Libra Astronomica and its Mathematics”

First Place: Douglas Smith (Miami University, Ohio)
“Lucas’s theorem: A Great Theorem”

2006

First Place: Jennifer Wiegert
“The Sagacity of Circles: A History of the Isoperimetric Problem”

First Place: Samantha Reynolds (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Female Mathematician and Brilliant Expositor of the 18^th Century”

2005

First Place: Newlyn Walkup (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“Eratosthenes and the Mystery of the Stades”

Second Place: James Collingwood (Drake University)
“Rigor in Analysis: From Newton to Cauchy”

2004

First Place: Mark Walters
“It Appears That Four Colors Suffice: A Historical Overview of the Four-Color Theorem”

First Place: Heath Yates (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
“An Emanji Temple Tablet”