El premio es otorgado por la Mathematical Association of America en reconocimiento a un artículo publicado en la revista The American Mathematical Monthly:
The Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Awards recognize authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly. This award is $1,000 and up to four awards may be awarded each year. The awards were established in 1964 as the Ford awards, named for Lester R. Ford, Sr., a distinguished mathematician, editor of The American Mathematical Monthly, 1942-1946, and President of the Mathematical Association of America, 1947-1948. In 2012, the Board of Governors designated these awards as the Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Awards to recognize the support for the awards provided by the Halmos family and to recognize Paul R. Halmos, a distinguished mathematician and editor of The Monthly, 1982-1986.
Mario Ponce es profesor asociado de la Facultad de Matemáticas UC y actual Secretario de la SOMACHI. Patricio Santibáñez es profesor del Instituto Alonso de Ercilla. El reconocimiento lo reciben por su artículo “On Equidistant Sets and Generalized Conics: the Old and the New”, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 121, No. 1, January 2014, pp 18-32.
El premio Paul Halmos-Lester Ford ha sido recibido anteriormente por destacados matemáticos como Peter Sarnak, Tom M. Apostol, Richard Palais, Andrew Granville, A. F. Beardon, Joseph H. Silverman, John Milnor, Donald E. Knuth, Peter D. Lax, Jean A. Dieudonné, entre otros.