The prize was founded in 2005 with funds provided by mathematician
Paul Halmos (1916–2006) and his wife Virginia. It was first given in 2007; this date was chosen to honor the 300th anniversary of Euler's birth, as part of the MAA "Year of Euler" celebration.[1][2]
2008:
Benjamin Yandell, The Honors Class: Hilbert's Problems and Their Solvers (AK Peters, 2002).[1] This book intertwines the stories of the solutions to
Hilbert's problems with the biographies of its solvers. The award was given posthumously to Yandell, who died in 2004.[6]
2009:
Siobhan Roberts, King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, the Man Who Saved Geometry (Walker and Company, 2006).[1] This biography of
Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter also describes the history of geometry and Coxeter's contributions to the field.[7][8]
2011:
Timothy Gowers, The Princeton Companion to Mathematics (Princeton University Press, 2008). This book provides an overview of modern research mathematics; Gowers edited the contributions of 133 distinguished mathematicians as well as writing many of the entries in it himself.[10]
2022:
Allison Henrich,
Emille D. Lawrence, Matthew Pons, and David Taylor, eds., Living Proof: Stories of Resilience Along the Mathematical Journey, MAA and AMS (2019)[1]
2023: Susan D'Agostino, How to Free Your Inner Mathematician: Notes on Mathematics and Life, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press (2020)[1]