The Bowdoin Prizes are prestigious awards given annually to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

undergraduate and graduate students. From the income of the bequest of Governor James Bowdoin, AB 1745, prizes are offered to students at the University in graduate and undergraduate categories for work in the English Language, in the Natural Sciences, in Greek, and in Latin. Each winner of a Bowdoin Prize receives, in addition to a sum of money, a medal, a certificate, and his or her name printed in the Commencement Program. The award was established in 1791, and past winners include (with year of award and professional highlights): *

Jared Sparks Jared Sparks (May 10, 1789 – March 14, 1866) was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard College from 1849 to 1853. Biography Born in Willington, Connecticut, Sparks studied in the common s ...

, 1815, historian and president of Harvard *

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, 1820 and 1821, essayist and poet *

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

, 1830 and 1832, politician and US Senator *

Jones Very Jones Very (August 28, 1813 – May 8, 1880) was an American poet, essayist, clergyman, and mystic associated with the American Transcendentalism movement. He was known as a scholar of William Shakespeare, and many of his poems were Shakespea ...

, 1835 and 1836, Transcendentalist essayist and poet * Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 1837, lawyer and politician *

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in '' Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...

, 1838 and 1839, author and historian * Charles L. Flint, 1849, lawyer, horticulturalist, president of what is now University of Massachusetts Amherst *

Horatio Alger, Jr. Horatio Alger Jr. (; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was an American author who wrote young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through good works. His wri ...

, 1851, prolific author of "rags to riches" novels *

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fr ...

, 1858, historian and author *

Richard Theodore Greener Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. He broke ground as Harvard College's first Black graduate in 1870. Within three y ...

, 1870, statesman and dean of Howard University School of Law * George Lyman Kittredge, 1881 and 1882, educator and scholar in English literature * Alain LeRoy Locke, 1907, first African-American Rhodes Scholar, academic, writer, and "Father of the Harlem Renaissance" * R. Nathaniel Dett, 1920, composer *

George Frazier George Francis Frazier Jr. (June 10, 1911 – June 13, 1974) was an American journalist. Frazier was raised in South Boston, attended the Boston Latin School, and was graduated from Harvard College (where he won the Boylston Prize for Rhetoric) in ...

, 1933, journalist * Nathan Pusey, 1934, president of Harvard * Daniel J. Boorstin, 1934, Rhodes Scholar, historian, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize *

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (March 1, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. He was twice Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. For ''The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov'' (1977) ...

, 1940, poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award * I. Bernard Cohen, 1941, historian of science * Robert Galambos, 1941, neuroscientist *

Arthur Kinoy Arthur Kinoy (September 20, 1920 – September 19, 2003), was an American attorney and progressive civil rights leader who helped defend Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. He served as a professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark from 1964 to ...

, 1941, attorney and civil rights leader *

Constantine Cavarnos Schemamonk Constantine Cavarnos (1918, Boston – March 3, 2011, Florence, Arizona) was an American philosopher, Byzantinist, and Eastern Orthodox monk. Early life and education Cavarnos was born in Boston in 1918. He graduated from Harvard Univ ...

, 1947, teacher, author, monk *Henri Dorra, 1949, art historian *

Christopher Lasch Robert Christopher Lasch (June 1, 1932 – February 14, 1994) was an American historian, moralist and social critic who was a history professor at the University of Rochester. He sought to use history to demonstrate what he saw as the pervasiven ...

, 1954, professor, author, historian, and social critic * John Updike, 1954, writer *

Allen G. Debus Allen George Debus (August 16, 1926 – March 6, 2009) was an American historian of science, known primarily for his work on the history of chemistry and alchemy. In 1991 he was honored at the University of Chicago with an academic conference he ...

, 1957 and 1958, historian of science * Larry Siedentop, 1959, Marshall Scholar, political philosopher *

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...

, 1960, Palestinian essayist and academic * James Samuel Gordon, 1961 and 1962, author, psychiatrist, and mind-body medicine expert * Patrick T. Riley, 1966 and 1967, political science professor * Robert Kirshner, 1970, astrophysicist *

Paul Starr Paul Elliot Starr (born May 12, 1949) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He is also the co-editor (with Robert Kuttner) and co-founder (with Kuttner and Robert Reich) of ''The American Prospect'', a notable li ...

, 1974, professor of sociology and public affairs *Ralph Jay Hexter, 1974, professor of classics and comparative literature and provost of UC Davis * James D. Weinrich, 1975, sex researcher and psychobiologist * Robert W. Brooks, 1975, mathematician * John Glover Roberts, Jr., 1976, Chief Justice of the United States *

Paul Alan Cox Paul Alan Cox is an American ethnobotanist whose scientific research focuses on discovering new medicines by studying patterns of wellness and illness among indigenous peoples. Cox was born in Salt Lake City in 1953. Education After receiving h ...

, 1978 and 1981, ethnobotanist * Richard H. Ebright, 1979, molecular and microbiologist * Mark W. Moffett, 1986, entomologist * Jonathan Veitch, 1988, historian and president of Occidental College * Nicholas A. Christakis, 1988, physician and sociologist *

Cyrus Patell Cyrus R. K. Patell (born October 9, 1961) is a literary and cultural critic who writes and teaches on World literature with a focus on US literature. He is currently Professor of English at New York University (NYU) and Global Network Professor o ...

, 1991, literary and cultural critic *

Faith Salie Faith Coley Salie (born April 14, 1971) is an American journalist, writer, actress, comedian, television, radio, and podcast host and Rhodes scholar. She is a contributor to ''CBS Sunday Morning'' and a panelist on NPR’s '' Wait Wait... Don't T ...

, 1992, Rhodes Scholar, actress, and media personality *David S. Jones, 1993, historian and professor of the culture of medicine *Elaine Goldenberg, 1993, lawyer * William Pannapacker, 1995 and 1999, academic and journalist * Mark Greif, 1997, Marshall Scholar, academic and literary critic *

Joe Roman Joe Roman is a conservation biologist, academic, and author of the books ''Whale'' and '' Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act''. His conservation research includes studies of the historical population size of whales, the ...

, 2000, author and conservation biologist *

Vivek Ramaswamy Vivek Ramaswamy (born August 9, 1985) is an American entrepreneur in the healthcare and technology sectors, a political commentator, and a ''New York Times'' bestselling author. In 2022, he founded Strive Asset Management and currently serves as t ...

, 2007, entrepreneur in the healthcare and technology sectors, political commentator, and a ''New York Times'' bestselling author

References

{{Reflist Awards by university and college in the United States Harvard University

See also

References