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Call for Applications
Previous Winners
The Partington Prize 2026
The prize-winning essay will be published exclusively in the Society’s journal, Ambix. It must not have been submitted to any journal, including Ambix, at any time before 30 April 2026.
Essays must be submitted in English. Essays must be fully documented using the conventions used in the current issue of Ambix and include an abstract of no more than 200 words. Essays must not exceed 10,000 words in length, including the abstract, references and footnotes.
All entries should be sent to prizes@ambix.org in the form of two separate e-mail attachments in Microsoft Office Word (preferably 2013 or later). The first attachment should be headed “Partington Prize Entry 2026” and should give the author’s name, institution, postal address, e-mail address, date of birth (and, if relevant, the date of the award of the master’s degree or PhD), the title of the essay, and the word count. The second attachment should be the essay, which should not identify the author either by name or implicitly.
Entries must arrive before midnight GMT on 31 December 2025. The decision of the Society will be final on all matters. The result of the competition will be announced by 30 April 2026.
Previous Winners
Below can be found an overview of previous winners. All past prize-winning entries are available to download here.
2023
- Cornu, Armel. 2023. “Senses and Utility in the New Chemistry.” Ambix 70 (4): 380–98. doi:10.1080/00026980.2023.2265681.
2020
- Mike A. Zuber, “Alchemical Promise, the Fraud Narrative, and the History of Science from Below: A German Adept’s Encounter with Robert Boyle and Ambrose Godfrey”, Ambix, 68 (2021), 28-48.
2017
- Stephen T. Irish, “The Corundum Stone and Crystallographic Chemistry,” Ambix 64 (2017), 301-325.
2014
- Winner: Evan Hepler-Smith, ‘“Just as the Structural Formula Does”: Names, Diagrams, and the Structure of Organic Chemistry at the 1892 Geneva Nomenclature Congress’ Ambix, 62 (2015), 1-28.
- Highly commended: ‘Joel Klein, Daniel Sennert, the Philosophical Hen, and the Epistolary Quest for a (Nearly-)Universal Medicine’, Ambix, 62 (2015), 29-49.
2011
- Dr Marcos Martinon-Torres, ‘Inside Solomon’s House: An archaeological study of the Old Ashmolean chymical laboratory in Oxford’ Ambix, 59 (2012), 22-49.
- Dr Evan Ragland, ‘Chymistry and taste in the seventeenth century: Franciscus Dele Boe Sylvius as a chymical physician between Galenism and Cartesianism’, Ambix, 59 (2012), 1-21.
2008
- Jennifer Rampling, ‘Establishing the Canon: George Ripley and his Alchemical Sources’, Ambix, 55 (2008), 189-208.
- Georgette Taylor, ‘Tracing Influence in Small Steps: Richard Kirwan’s Quantified Affinity Theory’, Ambix, 55 (2008), 209-231.
2005
- Dane T. Daniel, “Invisible wombs: Rethinking Paracelsus’s concept of body and matter”.
Published as: Dane T. Daniel, ‘Invisible Wombs: Rethinking Paracelsus’s Concept of Body and Matter’, Ambix, 53 (2006), 129 – 142.
2002 (no award)
1999
- Tara E. Nummedal, “Alchemical reproduction and the strange career of Maria Zieglerin”.
Published as: Tara E. Nummedal, ‘Alchemical Reproduction and the Career of Anna Maria Zieglerin’, Ambix, 48 (2001), 56 – 68.
1996 (no award)
1993
- Katherine D. Watson, “The chemist as expert. The consulting career of Sir William Ramsay”.
Published as: Katherine D. Watson, ‘The Chemist as Expert: The Consulting Career of Sir William Ramsay’, Ambix, 42 (1995), 143 – 159.
1990
- Marco Beretta, “The history of chemistry in the eighteenth century”.
Published as: Marco Beretta, ‘The Historiography of Chemistry in the Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Survey and Bibliography’, Ambix, 39 (1992), 1 – 10.
1987
- T. D. Moy, “A chemical mediator. Emil Fischer’s role as liaison during the First World War”.
Published as Timothy D. Moy, ‘Emil Fischer as “Chemical Mediator”: Science, Industry, and Government in World War One’,Ambix, 36 (1989), 109 – 120.
1984
- T. M. Luhrman, “An interpretation of the Fama Fraternitas with respect to Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica”.
Published as: T. M. Luhrman, ‘An Interpretation of the Fama Fraternitas with Respect to Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica’, Ambix, 33 (1986), 1 – 10.
1981
- William Newman, “Thomas Vaughan as an interpreter of Agrippa van Nettesheim”.
Published as William Newman, ‘Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of Agrippa von Nettesheim’, Ambix, 29 (1982), 125 – 140.
1978
- Reinhard Low, “The progress of organic chemistry during the period of German RomanticNaturphilosophie, 1795-1825”.
Published as Reinhard Löw, ‘The Progress of Organic Chemistry during the Period of German Romantic Naturphilosophie’,Ambix, 27 (1980), 1 – 10.
1975
- P. C. Barratt, “Speculative chemistry in the 1880s – Prout’s legacy for the chemical elements”.
