IMA Leslie Fox Prize 2027: Call for Papers
The prestigious IMA Leslie Fox Prize is a biennal prize that was established in 1985 in honour of distinguished mathematician and researcher Leslie Fox.
The next prize meeting (the twenty-third) will take place on Monday, the 21st of June, 2027, at the University of Strathclyde, aligning with the 31th Biennial Numerical Analysis Conference
Eligibility
Entries for the twenty-first IMA Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis should be submitted by 31st of January 2027 (UK time) using the application process detailed below. Any person who is less than 31 years old on 1st of January 2027 and has not already won a first prize is eligible – candidates need not come from academia. Appropriate career breaks for applicants over the age of 31 may be taken account of; these should be clearly described in the candidate’s statement. Career breaks due to maternity/paternity leave, caring responsibilities, disability or illness will be taken into account.
Each entry should be based on one (and only one) complete research paper describing original research of the candidate, suitable for a 40 minute lecture at a numerical analysis meeting. We accept manuscripts that have been submitted, in process or accepted for publication. Unpublished work will be treated in confidence and only shared with the Adjudicating Committee during the short-listing process. Candidates from previous competitions who did not win a first prize are permitted to enter.
Shortlist Selection
The entries will be considered by an Adjudicating Committee comprising
* Coralia Cartis (Oxford University)
* Catherine Powell (University of Manchester)
* Daniel Kressner (EPFL)
Particular attention will be given to the originality and quality of each paper, and to the suitability of the material for a 40-minute talk to a general audience of numerical analysts. The central contributions on which a submission is judged must be attributable to the candidate. Papers will be selected by the Committee by mid-April 2027, for presentation at the IMA
Leslie Fox Prize meeting. Only the papers that are presented at the meeting will be eligible for awards but, subject to this restriction, the Adjudicating Committee may award any number of first and second prizes. In cases where a short-listed candidate cannot attend the meeting in person due to disability, illness or caring responsibilities, efforts will be made to
facilitate an online presentation.
Guidance and Requirements
Entries should be submitted electronically using the myIMA platform. Only PDF files may be uploaded.
- Entries must be received on or before 31 January 2027.
- Each candidate should include a statement of their year of birth (including career break information if applicable) and should indicate that they would be available to present their paper at the meeting, preferably in person. If there are accessibility issues that would prevent in person attendance, please let us know.
- Each candidate and submission must comply with the IMA/OUP AI policies.
- As the Leslie Fox Prize places particular emphasis on the originality of the candidate’s (human) contribution to the work presented, a separate AI use statement by the candidate needs to be provided, disclosing fully and transparently if or/and how AI tools were used in obtaining the results and in preparing the paper. In particular, candidates should identify any substantive role played by AI in developing ideas, proofs, algorithms, code, or numerical experiments. Routine use for language editing may be reported more briefly.
- The AI use statement should allow the Prize Committee to understand clearly what intellectual role, if any, AI played in obtaining the results of the paper. A generic statement such as “AI tools were used in preparing this manuscript” is therefore not sufficient when AI contributed to the research itself. The Prize Committee reserves the right to contact candidates for further clarification regarding their use of AI.
- The prize is normally awarded for a paper with at most one co-author in addition to the candidate. The prize may, exceptionally, be awarded for a paper with three or more authors. In the case of multi-authored papers, a submission must be accompanied by a statement, signed by all co-authors, agreeing to the submission and detailing the contributions of each author to the paper. Please note that co-authors must not comment on the quality or significance of the submission, only on the relative contributions of the authors.
- Online participation will only be allowed in special circumstances, upon the discretion of the committee.
- Any questions concerning this notice should be addressed to a member of the Adjudicating Committee.
Timeline
- Call for papers opens on 1st October 2026 and closes on 31 January 2027
- Finalists announced mid-April 2027
- Date of Leslie Fox Prize meeting – Monday, the 21st of June, 2027
- Results announced at the end of the meeting
Entry Process
The information collected will only be used for the purpose of judging the entries and liaising with shortlisted candidates.