Lewis Fry Richardson Lifetime Achievement Award

Award Description

The Lewis F. Richardson Lifetime Achievement Award honors a recipient who has made exemplary scholarly contributions to the scientific study of militarized conflict. The prize is dedicated to encouraging scholars to pursue innovative avenues of research in the tradition of the eminent British meteorologist and peace researcher, Lewis Fry Richardson. It is given on a tri-annual basis to scholars who analyze international interactions systematically and rigorously and have spent most of their academic life in Europe.

The initial award was supported by Standing Groups of the European Consortium for Political Research. The award currently has no formal connection with the European Consortium for Political Research.

  • Current call for the award (note 30 April 2019 deadline)

  • Current statutes for the award

    Award winners

    2016, Paul Collier, Oxford University
  • A laudation by Scott Gates, Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, and Anja Shortland

    2013, Mats Hammarström and Peter Wallensteen, Uppsala University
  • A laudation has been published as Margit Bussmann, Han Dorussen, and Nils Petter Gleditsch. 2014. "Against All Odds: 2013 Richardson Award to Mats Hammarström and Peter Wallensteen". Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy , DOI: 10.1515/peps-2014-0003, February 2014

    2010, Ron P. Smith, Birkbeck College, University of London
  • A laudation has been published as Vincenzo Bove & Kristian Skrede Gleditsch. 2011. “The 2010 Lewis Fry Richardson Lifetime Achievement Award: Ron P. Smith and the Economics of War and Peace”, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy 17(1), article 11, available at: http://www.bepress.com/peps/vol17/iss1/11, (see preprint)

    2007, Nils Petter Gleditsch, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
  • See the EPS paper on the award by Halvard Buhaug, Scott Gates, Håvard Hegre, Håvard Strand and Henrik Urdal

    2004, Erich Weede, University of Bonn
  • See the EPS laudation by Gerald Schneider

    2001, Michael Nicholson, University of Sussex
  • See the obituary by Amartya Sen

    Award Committee

    2014-2016

  • Tilman Brück, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
  • Margit Bussmann, University of Greifswald (chair)
  • Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, University of Essex
  • Anja Shortland, Brunel University

    2011-2013
  • Margit Bussmann, University of Greifswald
  • Erik Melander, University of Uppsala (chair)
  • Anja Shortland, Brunel University

    2008-2010
  • Sabine Carey, University of Nottingham
  • Lars-Erik Cederman, ETH Zurich
  • Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, University of Essex (chair)
  • Christos Kollias, University of Thessaly

    2005-2007
  • Halvard Buhaug, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
  • Sabine Carey, University of Nottingham
  • Han Dorussen, University of Essex
  • Gerald Schneider, University of Konstanz

    2001-2004
  • Wolf Dieter Eberwein, WZB, Social Science Research Center Berlin
  • Nils Petter Gleditsch, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo
  • Gerald Schneider, University of Konstanz
  • Hugh Ward, University of Essex

    About Lewis Fry Richardson

    Lewis Fry Richardson (11 October 1881 - 30 September 1953) was a British scholar and scientists who made important contributions to mathematics, physics, and the study of conflict and peace.

    Richardson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and educated in the natural sciences at King's College, Cambridge. His long career involved a large number of very diverse positions, including posts at the Meteorological Office, three years in the Friends Ambulance Unit during WWI, concluding in his appoinment as Principal at Paisley Technical College.

    Richardson is perhaps best known for his contributions to the study of meterology, where he pioneered efforts at weather forecasting. The Richardson Number is named after him. The European Geophysical Union awards the Richardson Medal "for exceptional contributions to nonlinear geophysics".

    Richardson was a Quaker and a pacifist, and eager to use scientific methods to be better understand the causes and dynamics of violent conflict. His work on war and peace before 1945 was generally ignored by conventional international relations scholars, but researchers such as Anatol Rapoport revived interest in his work in the 1960s.

    This review (JSTOR required) in the British Journal of Political Science of LFR Richardson's collected papers by Michael Nicholson (a previous Richardson award winner) provides an overview of his contributions to the study of war and peace