Lalande Prize
Encyclopedia
The Lalande Prize was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 through 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences
.
The prize was named for, and endowed by, astronomer Jérôme Lalande
in 1801. After 1970 it was combined with the Benjamin Valz
Foundation prize until 1996.
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research...
.
The prize was named for, and endowed by, astronomer Jérôme Lalande
Jérôme Lalande
Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande was a French astronomer and writer.-Biography:Lalande was born at Bourg-en-Bresse...
in 1801. After 1970 it was combined with the Benjamin Valz
Benjamin Valz
Jean Elias Benjamin Valz was a French astronomer.He was born in Nîmes and trained as an engineer. He became interested in astronomy and comets in particular, observing the return of what would later be named Comet Encke...
Foundation prize until 1996.
Winners
A partial list of Lalande Prize laureates includes:- 1803 : Giuseppe PiazziGiuseppe PiazziGiuseppe Piazzi was an Italian Catholic priest of the Theatine order, mathematician, and astronomer. He was born in Ponte in Valtellina, and died in Naples. He established an observatory at Palermo, now the Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo – Giuseppe S...
- 1804 : Karl Ludwig HardingKarl Ludwig HardingKarl Ludwig Harding was a German astronomer notable for having discovered the asteroid 3 Juno.-Biography:...
- 1810 : Carl Friedrich GaussCarl Friedrich GaussJohann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
- 1811 : Friedrich BesselFriedrich Bessel-References:* John Frederick William Herschel, A brief notice of the life, researches, and discoveries of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, London: Barclay, 1847 -External links:...
- 1817 : John PondJohn PondJohn Pond FRS was a renowned English astronomer who became the sixth Astronomer Royal, serving from 1811 to 1835.- Biography :...
- 1818 : Jean-Louis PonsJean-Louis PonsJean-Louis Pons was a French astronomer.Despite humble beginnings and being self-taught, he went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time: between 1801 and 1827 Pons discovered thirty-seven comets, more than any other person in history.- Early life :Pons was born at Peyre,...
- 1825 : John HerschelJohn HerschelSir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...
, James SouthJames SouthSir James South was a British astronomer.He helped found the Astronomical Society of London, and it was under his name as president of the society from 1831 to 1832 that a petition was successfully submitted to obtain a royal charter in 1831, whereupon it became the Royal Astronomical... - 1834 : George Biddell AiryGeorge Biddell AirySir George Biddell Airy PRS KCB was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881...
- 1835 : James DunlopJames DunlopJames Dunlop was an astronomer's assistant who was hired by Sir Thomas Brisbane to work at his private observatory, once located at Paramatta , New South Wales, about twenty-three kilometres west of Sydney, Australia during the 1820s and 1830s...
, Palon Heinrich Ludwig von Boguslawsky - 1839 : Johann Gottfried GalleJohann Gottfried GalleJohann Gottfried Galle was a German astronomer at the Berlin Observatory who, on 23 September 1846, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the planet Neptune, and know what he was looking at...
- 1840 : Bremicker
- 1841 : no award
- 1842 : no award
- 1844 : Hervé FayeHervé FayeHervé Auguste Étienne Albans Faye was a French astronomer, born at Saint-Benoît-du-Sault and educated at the Ecole Polytechnique, which he left in 1834, before completing his course, to accept a position in the Paris Observatory to which he had been appointed on the recommendation of M. Arago.He...
- 1844 : Francis de Vico, Heinrich Louis d'ArrestHeinrich Louis d'ArrestHeinrich Louis d'Arrest was a German astronomer, born in Berlin. His name is sometimes given as Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest....
- 1851 : John Russell HindJohn Russell HindJohn Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer.- Life and work :John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind, and was educated at Nottingham High School...
, Annibale de GasparisAnnibale de GasparisAnnibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer. From 1864 to 1889 he was the director of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1851.... - 1852 : John Russell HindJohn Russell HindJohn Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer.- Life and work :John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind, and was educated at Nottingham High School...
, Annibale de GasparisAnnibale de GasparisAnnibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer. From 1864 to 1889 he was the director of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1851....
, Robert Luther, Jean ChacornacJean ChacornacJean Chacornac was a French astronomer.He was born in Lyon and died in St Jean en Royans. Working in Marseille and Paris, he discovered six asteroids. The asteroid 1622 Chacornac and the crater Chacornac on the Moon are named in his honour....
, Hermann Goldschmidt - 1854 : Robert Luther, Albert MarthAlbert MarthAlbert Marth was a German astronomer who worked in England and Ireland.He came to England in 1853 to work for George Bishop, a rich wine merchant and patron of astronomy. At that time, paid jobs in astronomy were quite rare....
, John Russell HindJohn Russell HindJohn Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer.- Life and work :John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind, and was educated at Nottingham High School...
, James FergusonJames FergusonJames Ferguson may refer to:*James Ferguson , Scottish*James Ferguson , Scottish*James Ferguson , Scottish astronomer and instrument maker...
and Hermann Goldschmidt - 1855 : Jean ChacornacJean ChacornacJean Chacornac was a French astronomer.He was born in Lyon and died in St Jean en Royans. Working in Marseille and Paris, he discovered six asteroids. The asteroid 1622 Chacornac and the crater Chacornac on the Moon are named in his honour....
, Robert Luther and Hermann Goldschmidt - 1856 : Jean ChacornacJean ChacornacJean Chacornac was a French astronomer.He was born in Lyon and died in St Jean en Royans. Working in Marseille and Paris, he discovered six asteroids. The asteroid 1622 Chacornac and the crater Chacornac on the Moon are named in his honour....
and Norman Pogson - 1857 : Hermann Goldschmidt and Karl Christian BruhnsKarl Christian BruhnsKarl Christian Bruhns was a German astronomer.-Biography:He was the son of a locksmith, and in 1851 went as locksmith and mechanic, first to Borsig, and then to Berlin with the firm of Siemens and Halske...
- 1858 : A. LaurentA. LaurentA. Laurent was a Frenchman who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858.He never made any more asteroid discoveries and not much more seems to be known about him...
, Hermann Goldschmidt, George Mary SearleGeorge Mary SearleGeorge Mary Searle was an American astronomer and clergyman.He discovered the asteroid 55 Pandora in 1858. He also discovered six galaxies. In later life he became a member of the Paulist order and taught at the Catholic University of America.-External links:*...
, Horace Parnell TuttleHorace Parnell TuttleHorace Parnell Tuttle was an American astronomer, a Civil War veteran and brother of astronomer Charles Wesley Tuttle ....
, August Winnecke and Giovanni Battista DonatiGiovanni Battista DonatiGiovanni Battista Donati ; 16 December 1826, Pisa, Italy – 20 September 1873, Florence, Italy) was an Italian astronomer.Donati graduated from the university of his native city, Pisa, and afterwards joined the staff of the Observatory of Florence in 1852... - 1860 : Robert Luther
- 1861 : Ernst Wilhelm Tempel, Robert Luther and Hermann Goldschmidt
- 1862 : Alvan ClarkAlvan ClarkAlvan Clark , born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, the descendant of a Cape Cod whaling family of English ancestry, was an American astronomer and telescope maker. He was a portrait painter and engraver , and at the age of 40 became involved in telescope making...
- 1864 : Richard Christopher CarringtonRichard Christopher CarringtonRichard Christopher Carrington was an English amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations demonstrated the existence of solar flares as well as suggesting their electrical influence upon the Earth and its aurorae; and whose 1863 records of sunspot observations revealed the differential...
- 1866 : Warren de la RueWarren de la RueWarren De la Rue was a British astronomer and chemist, most famous for his pioneering work in astronomical photography.-Biography:...
- 1867 : Thomas MaclearThomas MaclearSir Thomas Maclear was an Irish-born South African astronomer who became Her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope....
- 1868 : Giovanni SchiaparelliGiovanni SchiaparelliGiovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer and science historian. He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory. In 1859-1860 he worked in Pulkovo Observatory and then worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory...
- 1869 : Jules Janssen
- 1870 : William HugginsWilliam HugginsSir William Huggins, OM, KCB, FRS was an English amateur astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy.-Biography:...
- 1876 : Johann PalisaJohann PalisaJohann Palisa was an Austrian astronomer, born in Opava in Austrian Silesia .He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, discovering 122 in all, from 136 Austria in 1874 to 1073 Gellivara in 1923...
- 1878 : Asaph HallAsaph HallAsaph Hall III was an American astronomer who is most famous for having discovered the moons of Mars in 1877...
- 1882 : Lewis Swift
- 1883 : Guillaume BigourdanGuillaume BigourdanCamille Guillaume Bigourdan was a French astronomer.Bigourdan was born at Sistels, Tarn-et-Garonne. In 1877 he was appointed by Félix Tisserand as assistant astronomer at the Toulouse Observatory, and in 1879 followed Tisserand to the Paris Observatory when the latter became director there.He...
- 1888 : Joseph Bossery
- 1889 : François GonnessiatFrançois GonnessiatFrançois Gonnessiat was a French astronomer.He worked at the Observatory of Lyon. In 1889 he won the Lalande Prize for astronomy from the French Academy of Sciences; 1901 became director of the Quito Observatory for the purpose of making geodetic measurements...
- 1891 : Guillaume BigourdanGuillaume BigourdanCamille Guillaume Bigourdan was a French astronomer.Bigourdan was born at Sistels, Tarn-et-Garonne. In 1877 he was appointed by Félix Tisserand as assistant astronomer at the Toulouse Observatory, and in 1879 followed Tisserand to the Paris Observatory when the latter became director there.He...
- 1892 : Edward Emerson Barnard
- 1893 : Léopold Schulhof
- 1894 : Stéphane JavelleStephane JavelleStephane Javelle was a French astronomer. Since 1888 he worked assisting Henri Perrotin at the Nice Observatory, and observed 1431 objects published in the Index Catalogue....
- 1895 : Maurice Hamy
- 1896 : Pierre PuiseuxPierre PuiseuxPierre Henri Puiseux was a French astronomer.Born in Paris, son of Victor Puiseux, he was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure before starting work as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1885....
- 1898 : Perrine, observatoire du Mont-Hamilton
- 1899 : William Robert BrooksWilliam Robert BrooksWilliam Robert Brooks was a British-born American astronomer, mainly noted as being one of the most prolific discoverers of new comets of all time, second only to Jean-Louis Pons...
- 1900 : Michel GiacobiniMichel GiacobiniMichel Giacobini was a French astronomer.He discovered a number of comets, including 21P/Giacobini-Zinner , 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak, and 205P/Giacobini...
- 1901 : John M. ThomeJohn M. ThomeJohn Macon Thome was an American-Argentine astronomer. Some sources say John Macom Thome. He is sometimes known as Juan M...
- 1903 : William Wallace CampbellWilliam Wallace CampbellWilliam Wallace Campbell was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1900 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy.-Biography:...
- 1906 : William Henry PickeringWilliam Henry PickeringWilliam Henry Pickering was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1883.-Work:...
, Robert Grant AitkenRobert Grant AitkenRobert Grant Aitken was an American astronomer.He worked at Lick Observatory in California. He systematically studied double stars, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits around one another...
, William HusseyWilliam HusseyWilliam Joseph Hussey was an American astronomer.He is most famous for the discovery and study of close binary stars. In the period from 1898 to 1899, he reobserved all binaries discovered by Otto Struve, with at least three observations of each... - 1908 : William Lewis ElkinWilliam Lewis ElkinWilliam Louis Elkin was an American astronomer.He was born in New Orleans to Jane and Lewis Elkin, one of five children but the only one to survive to adulthood. Following the death of her husband in 1867, Jane travelled abroad for the following seventeen years, taking along William...
- 1911 : Lewis BossLewis Boss-Life:He was born in Providence, Rhode Island and attended secondary school at the Lapham Institute in North Scituate and the New Hampton Institution in New Hampshire. In 1870 he graduated from Dartmouth College, then went to work as a clerk for the U.S. Government. He served as an assistant...
- 1912 : Hermann KoboldHermann KoboldHermann Kobold was a German astronomer.-Biography:Hermann Albert Kobold was born in Hanover, Germany third of five children of the carpenter August Kobold and his wife Dorothea Kobold...
and Carl Wilhelm WirtzCarl Wilhelm WirtzCarl Wilhelm Wirtz was an astronomer who spent his time between Germany and the Observatory of Strasbourg.... - 1913 : Jean Bosler
- 1914 : Joseph-Noël Guillaume
- 1915 : Lucien d'Azambuja
- 1916 : Jérôme Eugène CoggiaJérôme Eugène CoggiaJérôme Eugène Coggia was a 19th-century French astronomer.Working in Marseille, he discovered a number of comets, including the bright "Coggia's Comet" . The periodic comet 27P/Crommelin was previously called "Comet Pons-Coggia-Winnecke-Forbes". In 1916 he was awarded the Lalande Prize of the...
- 1919 : Vesto SlipherVesto SlipherVesto Melvin Slipher was an American astronomer. His brother Earl C. Slipher was also an astronomer and a director at the Lowell Observatory....
- 1922 : Henry Norris RussellHenry Norris RussellHenry Norris Russell was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram . In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling which is also known as LS coupling.-Biography:Russell was born in 1877 in Oyster Bay, New...