A sidney prize is an award that honours people and organisations that have contributed to social change. It can be awarded to a person or organisation for their work with communities, for science and even for the arts. The winners of the prize are rewarded for their efforts and encouraged to continue making a difference in the world. There are a number of different sidney prizes that are given throughout the year and each one has its own criteria.
Sidney Black Memorial Engineering Award
The award is named in memory of Sidney Black, who passed away in 2016. He was an accomplished engineer and a dedicated teacher at Hamilton College. He helped to revise the undergraduate curriculum and ensured that students were exposed to both the arts and sciences. He also sought to make sure that non-scientists could appreciate the value of scientific research. He was a true pioneer of high-tech engineering and was always willing to challenge accepted dogma, but with extreme caution.
His steadfast conviction that the truth was self-evident made him a great teacher and he had a remarkable ability to convey complex ideas clearly. He was a natural storyteller and his students remember him with warmth and affection. His legacy can be seen in the many prizes and endowed professorships that have been established in his name at Hamilton College and elsewhere.
This prize is funded by a donation from the Sydney University Greek Society to celebrate the outstanding commitment of Professor Vrasidas Karalis and Associate Professor Anthony Dracopoulos to the Department of Greek and Latin and their dedication to fostering a love of Greek language and culture in undergraduate students. It is open to students currently enrolled in Greek Honours in a bachelor’s degree within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. The prize will be paid as a one-off payment of up to $1000. The recipient must use the funds for the purchase of books or magazines/periodicals (hard copy or electronic) related to their studies.
SS Sidney Hillman Prize
The SS Sidney Hillman Prize is a prestigious book prize for works of scholarship in the history of technology. The book is chosen each year by the editors of SHOT, the Society for the History of Technology. The award is a $1,000 cash prize and a certificate of recognition.
New York Times columnist David Brooks has been awarding the SS Sidney Awards since 2004. The most recent winner was “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Brooks and William Zinsser. Their article explored student hypersensitivity, in which students seek safe spaces to protect themselves from microaggressions. They dubbed this mental state “vindictive protectiveness” and wrote about how it leads to depression and leaves students unprepared for the real world. The article was widely praised. It is the second time that a New York Times piece has won the Sidney award. The first was an article on online sexism by Amanda Hess.