Call for nominations for the 2016 Alonzo Church Award

It's been a long journey, but the Alonzo Church Award is finally off the ground. Here is the call for nominations I just received from the first award committee. You will notice that the deadline for nominating papers for the first award is close: March 1, 2016.  (Of course, the call for nominations will be issued earlier next year.) For the time being, I hope that you will follow Littlewood's zero-infinity law: If you  have a paper (or papers) you'd like to nominate for the award, do it now, where in this case "now" means "by the end of February 2016" :-)

The award committee, whose members I thank on behalf of the EATCS, look forward to receiving your nominations!

The 2016 Alonzo Church Award

for

Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation

Call for Nominations

Introduction

An annual award, called the Alonzo Church Award for Outstanding Contributions to Logic and Computation, was established in 2015 by the ACM Special Interest Group for Logic and Computation (SIGLOG), the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS), the European Association for Computer Science Logic (EACSL), and the Kurt Gödel Society (KGS). The award is for an outstanding contribution represented by a paper or by a small group of papers published within the past 25 years. This time span allows the lasting impact and depth of the contribution to have been established. The award can be given to an individual, or to a group of individuals who have collaborated on the research. For the rules governing this award, see

http://siglog.hosting.acm.org/the-alonzo-church-award-for-outstanding-contributions-to-logic-and-computation/

Eligibility and Nominations

The contribution must have appeared in a paper or papers published within the past 25 years. Thus, for the 2016 award, the cut-off date is January 1, 1991. When a paper has appeared in a conference and then in a journal, the date of the journal publication will determine the cut-off date. In addition, the contribution must not yet have received recognition via a major award, such as the Turing Award, the Kanellakis Award, or the Gödel Prize. (The nominee(s) may have received such awards for other contributions.) While the contribution can consist of conference or journal papers, journal papers will be given a preference.

Nominations for the 2016 award are now being solicited. The nominating letter must summarize the contribution and make the case that it is fundamental and outstanding. The nominating letter can have multiple co-signers. Self-nominations are excluded. Nominations must include: a proposed citation (up to 25 words); a succinct (100-250 words) description of the contribution; and a detailed statement (not exceeding four pages) to justify the nomination. Nominations may also be accompanied by supporting letters and other evidence of worthiness.

Nominations are due by March 1, 2016, and should be submitted to vardi@cs.rice.edu.

Presentation of the Award

The 2016 award will be presented at LICS, the flagship conference of SIGLOG. The award will be accompanied by an invited lecture by the award winner, or by one of the award winners. The awardee(s) will receive a certificate and a cash prize of USD 2,000. If there are multiple awardees, this amount will be shared.

Award Committee

The 2016 Alonzo Church Award Committee consists of the following four members: Catuscia Palamidessi, Gordon Plotkin, Wolfgang Thomas, and Moshe Vardi (chair).