The David Syme Research Prize is an annual award administered by the University of Melbourne for the best original research work in biology, physics, chemistry or geology, produced in Australia during the preceding two years, particular preference is given to original research to enhance industrial and/or commercial development.
The Prize was created at the university in 1904 when Melbourne newspaper publisher and owner of The Age David Syme made a £3,000 bequest for the foundation of the prize. The first prize was awarded in 1906. The publishers of The Age have continued to fund the award. The prize consists of a medal and of the interest from the original bequest (since 2020 an amount of the order of A$10,000), which may be topped-up further by the publishers. The recipient(s) of the award is chosen by a council selected from the university's Faculty of Science.
Recipients
Source: University of Melbourne
1906 – Edward Henry Embley
1907 – Harold Launcelot Wilkinson
1908 – Basil Kilvington
1909 – Harold Ingemann Jensen
1910 – Henry George Chapman
1911 – Georgina Sweet
1912 – Charles Oswald ; George Larcombe
1913 – Thomas Harvey Johnston
1914 – Joseph Mason Baldwin
1915 – Ernest Clayton Andrews, for his works on 'The Cobar Copper and Gold Field' and subsequent surveys 1916 – Charles Hedley 1917 – Henry Joseph Grayson 1918 – Thomas Griffith Taylor 1919 – Frank Leslie Stillwell 1920 – Frederick Chapman 1921 – Neil Hamilton Fairley 1922 – Henry George Smith 1923 – Frank Longstaff Apperley 1924 – Loftus Hills 1925 – James Stanley Rogers 1926 – Ernst Johannes Hartung 1927 – Harold Robert Dew ; Ethel Irene McLennan 1928 – Oscar Werner Tiegs 1929 – Charles Albert Edward Fenner for his thesis, Adelaide, South Australia A Study in Human Geography