Skip to Main Content

Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry

The award is made for a notable research work in geometry or topology that has appeared in the last six years. The work must be published in a recognized, peer-reviewed venue.

About this Prize

This prize was established in 1961 in memory of Professor Oswald Veblen through a fund contributed by former students and colleagues. The fund was later doubled by the widow of Professor Veblen. An anonymous donor generously augmented the fund in 2008. In 2013, in honor of her late father, John L. Synge, who knew and admired Oswald Veblen, Cathleen Synge Morawetz and her husband, Herbert, substantially increased the endowment

The current prize amount of US$5,000 is awarded every three years.

Most Recent Prize: 2022

Michael Hill, Michael Hopkins, and Douglas Ravenel received the 2022 Veblen Prize for their paper "On the nonexistence of elements of Kervaire invariant one." This paper solved a 50-year-old problem in geometric topology by showing that framed manifolds with Kervaire invariant one can only exist in finitely many dimensions, introducing deeply influential new ideas and techniques in algebraic topology.

See previous winners

Next Prize:  January 2025

Nomination Period:  1 February - 31 May

Nomination Procedure: 

Submit a letter of nomination, a complete bibliographic citation for the work being nominated, and a brief citation that explains why the work is important.

Nominate a colleague