David Woodruff receives the Presburger Award 2014

The EATCS is proud to announce that the Presburger Award 2014 Committee has chosen David Woodruff (IBM Almaden Research Center) as the recipient of the Presburger Award 2014. Congratulations to David!

Since 2010, the Presburger Award has been given each year to a young scientist (in exceptional cases to several young scientists) for outstanding contributions in theoretical computer science, documented by a published paper or a series of published papers. The award is named after Mojzesz Presburger who accomplished his path-breaking work on decidability of the theory of addition (which today is called Presburger arithmetic) as a student in 1929. The Presburger Award 2014 is sponsored by CWI Amsterdam and will be presented at ICALP 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

David Woodruff, born in 1980, has made important contributions to the theory of data streams, both creating new algorithms, and demonstrating that certain algorithms cannot exist. His work has an impact on other fields, including compressed sensing, machine learning, and numerical linear algebra. In the area of data streams, he resolved the Distinct Elements Problem, simultaneously optimizing the amount of memory used, the time needed to process each new entity, and the time needed to report an estimate of the number of distinct elements in the stream. In the area of machine learning, he used his previous results on data streams to design sub-linear algorithms for linear classification and minimum enclosing ball problems. In numerical linear algebra, he developed the first algorithms for low rank approximation and regression that run in time proportional to the number of non-zero entries of the input matrix. His work also resulted in 17 patents related to data streams and their applications.

The 2014 Presburger Award Committee consisted of

Antonin Kucera	Brno, chair
Claire Mathieu	ENS Paris
Peter Widmayer	Zurich

EATCS Fellows class of 2014 named

The EATCS has recognized ten of its members for their outstanding contributions to theoretical computer science by naming them as the first recipients of an EATCS fellowship.

The EATCS Fellows for 2014 are:

• Susanne Albers (Technische Universität München, Germany) for "her contributions to the design and analysis of algorithms, especially online algorithms, approximation algorithms, algorithmic game theory and algorithm engineering";
• Giorgio Ausiello (Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Italy) for "the impact of his scientific work in the field of algorithms and computational complexity and for his service to the scientific community";
• the late Wilfried Brauer (Technische Universität München, Germany) for "outstanding contributions to the foundation and organization of the European TCS community";
• Herbert Edelsbrunner (Institute of Science and Technology Austria and Duke University, USA) for "his tremendous impact on the field of computational geometry";
• Mike Fellows (Charles Darwin University, Australia) for "his role in founding the field of parameterized complexity theory, which has become a major subfield of research in theoretical computer science, and for being a leader in computer science education";
• Yuri Gurevich (Microsoft Research, USA) for "his development of abstract state machines and for outstanding contributions to algebra, logic, game theory, complexity theory and  software engineering";
• Monika Henzinger (University of Vienna, Austria) for "being one of the pioneers of web algorithms, algorithms that deal with problems of the world wide web";
• Jean-Eric Pin (LIAFA, CNRS and University Paris Diderot, France) for "outstanding contributions to the algebraic theory of automata and languages in connection with logic, topology, and combinatorics and service to the European TCS community";
• Paul Spirakis (University of Liverpool, UK, and University of Patras, Greece) for "seminal papers on Random Graphs and Population Protocols, Algorithmic Game Theory, as well as Robust Parallel Distribute Computing";
• Wolfgang Thomas (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) for "foundational  contributions to the development of automata theory as a framework for modelling, analyzing, verifying and synthesizing information processing systems."

The aforementioned members of the EATCS were selected by the EATCS Fellow Selection Committee, after examining the nominations received from our research community. The EATCS Fellow Selection Committee for 2014 consisted of

• Rocco De Nicola (IMT Lucca, Italy,
• Paul Goldberg (Oxford, UK),
• Anca Muscholl (Bordeaux, France; chair),
• Dorothea Wagner (Karlsruhe, Germany) and
• Roger Wattenhofer (ETH Zurich, CH)

The EATCS Fellows Program was established by the association last year  to recognize outstanding EACTS members for their scientific achievements in the field of Theoretical Computer Science. The EATCS is very proud to have the above-mentioned members of the organization as its first fellows. Congratulations all of them!

Ubiquitous computing

Gordon Plotkin awarded the EATCS Award 2014

I am pleased to report that Gordon Plotkin will receive the EATCS Award 2014 for his lifetime contribution of a research corpus of exceptional depth and influence across a broad range of areas within theoretical computer science. The committee for the EATCS Award 2014 consisted of Leslie Goldberg (chair), Kim G. Larsen and Vladimiro Sassone.

Plotkin is renowned for his ground-breaking contributions to programming language semantics, which have helped to shape the landscape of theoretical computer science, and which have impacted upon the design of programming languages and their verification technologies. The influence of his pioneering work on logical frameworks pervades modern proof technologies. In addition, he has made outstanding contributions in machine learning, automated theorem proving, and computer-assisted reasoning. He is still active in research at the topmost level, with his current activities placing him at the forefront of fields as diverse as programming semantics, applied logic, and systems biology. Alongside his scientific contributions of the highest calibre, he helped to lay the foundations of the theoretical computer science community, shaping the careers of generations of researchers.

Congratulations to Gordon! 

ICALP 2014 CFP

The ICALP 2014 deadline is rapidly approaching. I hope that you are making plans to submit your best work to the conference! Copenhagen and Vienna will be the places to be this July for a plethora of events across the spectrum of in TCS.

ICALP 2014: Call for Papers

The 41st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP) takes place from Tuesday, 8 July 2014 to Friday, 11 July 2014 at IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

ICALP is the main conference and annual meeting of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS). The main conference is preceded by a series of workshops on Monday, 7 July 2014.

Web site: icalp2014.itu.dk
Local organisation: Thore Husfeldt (chair), ITU
Contact: icalp2014@itu.dk

Important dates

Submission deadline: Friday, 14 February 2014,
Submission server: www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icalp2014
Author notification: Friday, 11 April 2014
Final manuscript due: Monday, 28 April 2014
Early registration: To be announced
Conference: 8 July 2014 to 11 July 2014

Invited speakers

Sanjeev Arora, Princeton University
Maurice Herlihy, Brown University
Victor Kuncak, EPFL Lausanne
Claire Mathieu, ENS Paris

Proceedings

ICALP proceedings are published in the Springer-Verlag ARCoSS (Advanced Research in Computing and Software Science) subseries of LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

Topics

Papers presenting original research on all aspects of theoretical computer science are sought. Typical but not exclusive topics of interest are:

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

* Algorithmic Game Theory
* Approximation Algorithms
* Combinatorial Optimization
* Combinatorics in Computer Science
* Computational Biology
* Computational Complexity
* Computational Geometry
* Cryptography
* Data Structures
* Design and Analysis of Algorithms
* Machine Learning
* Parallel, Distributed and External Memory Computing
* Randomness in Computation
* Quantum Computing

Track B: Logic, Semantics, Automata and Theory of Programming

* Algebraic and Categorical Models
* Automata Theory, Formal Languages
* Emerging and Non-standard Models of Computation
* Databases, Semi-Structured Data and Finite Model Theory
* Principles of Programming Languages
* Logics, Formal Methods and Model Checking
* Models of Concurrent, Distributed, and Mobile Systems
* Models of Reactive, Hybrid and Stochastic Systems
* Program Analysis and Transformation
* Specification, Refinement and Verification
* Type Systems and Theory, Typed Calculi

Track C: Foundations of Networked Computation: Models, Algorithms and Information Management

* Algorithmic Aspects of Networks
* E-commerce, Privacy, Spam
* Formal Methods for Network Information Management
* Foundations of Trust and Reputation in Networks
* Algorithms and Models for Mobile and Wireless Networks and Computation
* Models of Complex Networks
* Models and Algorithms for Global Computing
* Network Economics and Incentive-Based Computing Related to Networks
* Models and Algorithms for Networks of Low Capability Devices
* Overlay Networks and P2P Systems
* Social Networks
* Specification, Semantics, Synchronization of Networked Systems
* Theory of Security in Networks and Distributed Computing
* Web Searching and Ranking
* Web Mining and Analysis

Submission Guidlines

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract of no more than 12 pages in LNCS style presenting original research on the theory of Computer Science. Submissions should indicate to which track (A, B, or C) the paper is submitted. No prior publication or simultaneous submission to other publication outlets (either a conference or a journal) is allowed. The proceedings will be published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series by Springer-Verlag. It is strongly recommended that submissions adhere to the specified format and length. Submissions that are clearly too long may be rejected immediately. Material other than the abstract, references and the first 12 pages may be considered as supplementary and will be read at the committee's discretion.

Best Paper Awards

As in previous editions of ICALP, there will be best paper and best student paper awards for each track of the conference. In order to be eligible for a best student paper award, a paper should be authored only by students and should be marked as such upon submission.

Committees

Track A: Algorithms, complexity, and games

* Elias Koutsoupias (chair), University of Oxford, United Kingdom
* Dimitris Achlioptas, UC Santa Cruz, USA
* Pankaj Agrawal, Duke University, USA
* Nikhil Bansal, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
* Gerth Stoting Brodal, Aarhus University, Denmark
* Jean Cardinal, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
* Ning Chen, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
* Giorgos Christodoulou, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
* Xiaotie Deng, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
* Ilias Diakonikolas, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
* Chaled Elbassioni, Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi
* Amos Fiat, Tel Aviv University, Israel
* Leslie Goldberg, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
* Vipul Goyal, Microsoft, India
* Giuseppe Italiano, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Italy
* Marcin Kaminski, University of Warsaw, Poland
* Haim Kaplan, Tel Aviv University, Israel
* Ioardanis Kerenidis, University of Paris «Diderot», France
* Anna Karlin, University of Washington, USA
* Robert Krauthgamer, Weizmann Institute, Israel
* James Lee, University of Washington, USA
* Ashwin Nayak, University of Waterloo, Canada
* Jared Saia, University of New Mexico, USA
* Piotr Sankowski, University of Warsaw, Poland
* Maria Serna, UP Catalunya, Spain
* Christian Sohler, TU Dortmund, Germany
* Ryan Williams, Stanford, USA

Track B: Logic, semantics, automata and theory of Programming

* Javier Esparza (chair), Technische Universitat Munchen
* Paolo    Baldan,    Dipartimento di Matematica Pura e Applicata, Universita' di Padova
* Michele Boreale, Universita di Firenze
* Tomas Brazdil, Masaryk University
* Veronique    Bruyere, University of Mons
* Veronique    Cortier, CNRS, Loria
* Anuj Dawar, University of Cambridge
* Kousha Etessami, University of Edinburgh
* Maribel Fernandez, KCL
* David    Frutos Escrig, Universidad Complutense
* Pierre Ganty, IMDEA Software Institute
* Peter Habermehl, LIAFA University Paris 7
* Manfred Kufleitner, University of Stuttgart
* Stawomir Lasota, Warsaw University
* Oded Maler, CNRS-VERIMAG
* Sebastian Maneth, NICTA and UNSW
* Madhavan Mukund, Chennai Mathematical Institute
* Jens Palsberg, UCLA
* Thomas Schwentick, Universitt Dortmund
* Sonja Smets, University of Amsterdam
* Jiri Srba, Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University
* Steve Zdancewic, University of Pennsylvania

Track C: Foundations of networked computation: Models, algorithms and information management

* Pierre Fraigniaud (chair), CNRS and University Paris Diderot
* Andrea Clementi, Roma Tor Vergata
* Benjamin Doerr, Max-Planck-Institut
* Panagiota Fatourou, University of Crete
* Michal Feldman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
* Antonio Fernandez Anta, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
* Leszek Gasieniec, University of Liverpool
* Phillip B. Gibbons. Intel Labs
* Magnus Halldorsson, Reykjavik University
* Robert Kleinberg, Cornell
* Anne-Marie Kermarrec, INRIA Rennes
* Michal Koucky, Czech Academy of Sciences
* Gopal Pandurangan, Nanyang Tech. University
* Boaz Patt-Shamir, Tel-Aviv University
* Andrea Pietracaprina
* Andrea Richa, Arizona State University
* Luis Rodrigues, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa
* Christian Scheideler
* Jukka Suomela, University of Helsinki
* Philipp Woelfel, University of Calgary

Workshops

ICALP 2014 hosts a number of workshops on Monday 7 July 2014 at ITU.

Contact the ICALP organisers ( icalp2014@itu.dk) if you are interested in arranging a workshop. Registration, lunches, and rooms are provided by the ICALP conference organisation.

TOLA (Trends in Online Algorithms) 2014

The purpose of this workshop is to bring together researchers interested in all aspects of online algorithms, including classical competitive analysis, alternative performance measures, and advice complexity.

Two faculty positions at the School of Computer Science, Reykjavik University

At long last, we are hiring! Student numbers have sky-rocketed and we now have more than 900 students enrolled in CS degree programs. We were, and still are, bursting at the seams, but these hires should help. Do consider applying if you are looking for an academic position and you have a strong research profile. 

 

 

Faculty positions
School of Computer Science
Reykjavik University

The School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University invites applications for two faculty positions at the rank of an assistant professor, to begin in August 2014.  We are looking for energetic, highly qualified academics who, apart from developing their own research programs, will strengthen some of the existing research areas within the School, or build bridges between them or with industry.  Applications from all areas of computer science are welcomed, but of particular interest are candidates in systems, broadly construed, and other applied areas.

Candidates are expected to have a proven international research record and will be expected to play a full part in the teaching and administrative activities of the School. A PhD in computer science or closely related field is required.

The application deadline is March 1st, 2014.  For further details on the positions and the School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University, see http://en.ru.is/the-university/open-positions/.

One postdoctoral position at Reykjavik University

Nominal Structural Operational Semantics

School of Computer Science, Reykjavik University

One postdoctoral position

Applications are invited for one postdoctoral position at the School of Computer Science, Reykjavik University.  The position is part of a research project funded by the Icelandic Research Fund, under the direction of Luca Aceto and Anna Ingolfsdottir. The general aim of the project is to bring the framework of Nominal Structural Operational Semantics, proposed by Cimini, Mousavi, Reniers and Gabbay, to a level of maturity that is comparable to that of the standard theory of Structural Operational Semantics. More specifically, the main general goals of the research project are

• to provide further evidence that Nominal SOS is expressive enough to capture the original semantics of nominal calculi, such as value-passing CCS, variants of the (higher-order) pi-calculus, the spi-calculus, the psi-calculi and the object calculi, and to prove formally the correspondence between the presentation in terms of Nominal SOS and the original ones;
• to develop the meta-theory of Nominal SOS and to extend a wealth of classic SOS meta-results and techniques to the framework of Nominal SOS; and
• to provide tool support for Nominal SOS.

See here for details on the project.

The successful candidates will benefit from, and contribute to, the research environment at the Icelandic Centre of Excellence in Theoretical Computer Science (ICE-TCS). For information about ICE-TCS and its activities, see

http://www.icetcs.ru.is/.

Qualification requirements

Applicants for the postdoctoral position should have, or be about to hold, a PhD degree in Computer Science or closely related fields. Previous knowledge of at least one of concurrency theory, process calculi, (structural) operational semantics and logic in computer science is highly desirable.

Remuneration

The wage is 400,000 ISK (roughly 2,550 € at the present exchange rate) per month before taxes. The position is for two years, starting on August 1, 2014 (earlier starting dates are possible), and is renewable for another year, based on good performance and mutual satisfaction.

Application details

Interested applicants should send their CV, including a list of publications, in PDF to both addresses below, together with a statement outlining their suitability for the project and the names of at least two referees.

Anna Ingolfsdottir
email: annai@ru.is

Luca Aceto
email: luca@ru.is

We will start reviewing applications on February 14, 2014, and will continue to accept applications until the position is filled.

Royal Pardon for Alan Turing

From S. Barry Cooper, here is an official release with the details of the Royal Pardon for Alan Turing, embargoed until 00:01 this morning. Season greetings to all my readers.

PARDON FOR WW2 CODE-BREAKER TURING

By Jamie Grierson, Press Association Home Affairs Correspondent

Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous
royal pardon for a 61-year-old conviction for homosexual activity. Dr
Turing, who was pivotal in breaking the Enigma code, arguably shortening
the Second World War by at least two years, was chemically castrated
following his conviction in 1952.

His conviction for "gross indecency" led to the removal of his security
clearance and meant he was no longer able to work for Government
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) where he had continued to work
following service at Bletchley Park during the war.

Dr Turing, who died aged 41 in 1954 and is often described as the father
of modern computing, has been granted a pardon under the Royal Prerogative
of Mercy by the Queen following a request from Justice Secretary Chris
Grayling. "Dr Alan Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind,"
Mr Grayling said.

"His brilliance was put into practice at Bletchley Park during the Second
World War where he was pivotal to breaking the Enigma code, helping to end
the war and save thousands of lives.

"His later life was overshadowed by his conviction for homosexual
activity, a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and
which has now been repealed.

"Dr Turing deserves to be remembered and recognised for his fantastic
contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science. A pardon from
the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man."

Dr Turing died of cyanide poisoning and an inquest recorded a verdict of
suicide, although his mother and others maintained his death was
accidental.

There has been a long campaign to clear the mathematician's name,
including a well-supported e- petition and private member's bill, along
with support from leading scientists such as Sir Stephen Hawking.

The pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy will come into effect
today. The Justice Secretary has the power to ask the Queen to grant a
pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, for civilians convicted in
England and Wales.

A pardon is only normally granted when the person is innocent of the
offence and where a request has been made by someone with a vested
interest such as a family member. But on this occasion a pardon has been
issued without either requirement being met.

In September 2009, then-prime minister Gordon Brown apologised to Dr
Turing for prosecuting him as a homosexual after a petition calling for
such a move.

An e-petiton - titled "Grant a pardon to Alan Turing" - received 37,404
signatures when it closed in November last year. The request was declined
by Lord McNally on the grounds that Dr Turing was properly convicted of
what at the time was a criminal offence.

Job Ad: Dean of the School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University

The School of Computer Science at Reykjavik University, where I have been working for about nine years now, is looking for a new dean. I append the official job ad, which is being posted on several mailing lists, in the hope that highly-qualified computer scientists will be enticed to apply, despite the short deadline (January 9th, 2014). 

Interested people might want to have a look at the profile of the faculty within the school and at the research centres that it hosts.

Feel free to spread this ad as you see fit.

Dean of School of Computer Science

Reykjavik University seeks an ambitious leader to carry on the development of a growing School of Computer Science. The dean is responsible for administrative affairs as well as for leading the faculty's academic agenda. The dean reports to the Rector of Reykjavik University and is a member of the university‘s executive committee.

We seek candidates that have:

• Strong strategic vision and the ability to shape and lead a team of faculty members and staff

• Doctorate in computer science or related subjects

• Academic teaching and research experience

• Management, operations and leadership experience

• Experience from industry or collaborations with industry

• International experience

Reykjavik University‘s School of Computer Science provides education and research in computer science. The school offers BSc, MSc and PhD degrees and has a leading role in research.  External accreditation committee for doctorate studies claimed the school to be the strongest in Iceland and leading in research.  (PDF file)http://www.ru.is/media/td/SCS_accreditation.pdf   The school has about 900 enrolled students and nearly 30 faculty members.
For further information, please contact Ari Kristinn Jónsson, rector (ari@ru.is), tel: +354-599-6200.
Applications should be submitted before January 9th, 2014, through our applications website:  http://en.ru.is/the-university/open-positions/  or by e-mail at mannaudur@ru.is.
Supplements can be sent to: Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, 101 Reykjavík, labeled „Dean's position“. All applications are confidential.
The role of Reykjavik University is to create and disseminate knowledge to enhance the competitiveness and quality of life for individuals and society, guided by good ethics, sustainability and responsibility.
There are four schools within the university; School of Business, School of Computer Science, School of Law and School of Science and Engineering. Education and research at RU are based on strong ties with industry and society. We emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, international relations and entrepreneurship. Reykjavik University currently has around 3400 students and 250 employees.

Web site for ICALP 2014

The web site for ICALP 2014 is now live. There you will find the call for papers and further details on the conference tracks. The deadline for submitting a paper is February 14, 2014.

October issue of the Bulletin of the EATCS

The October issue  of the EATCS Bulletin is now available online at http://www.eatcs.org/beatcs/index.php/beatcs/issue/view/10. You can download a pdf with the printed version of the Bulletin from http://www.eatcs.org/images/bulletin/beatcs111.pdf. 

This is issue number 111 of the BEATCS and is the first one edited by Kazuo Iwama, the new editor in chief of the EATCS. Apart from four  EATCS columns, including the first one edited by Giovanni Pighizzini, this issue of the Bulletin also features contributions by Erik Demaine (recipient of the Presburger Award 2013), by Luca Moscardelli (recipient of the first Young Researcher in Theoretical Computer Science Award of the Italian Chapter of the EATCS) as well as by Jacopo Mauro and Alessandra Scafuro (recipients of the two Best Italian Ph.D. Thesis in Theoretical Computer Science Awards for 2013 of the Italian Chapter of the EATCS). And I have not yet mentioned the conference reports and the contributions related to EATCS matters, amongst which the calls for nominations for several EATCS awards and fellowships.

I hope that you will enjoy this issue of the Bulletin. Of course, Kazuo and I welcome suggestions for improving the BEATCS. Feel free to drop us a line with your ideas and desiderata.

Call for Nominations: The EATCS-IPEC Nerode Prize 2014 for outstanding papers in multivariate algorithmics

The call for nominations for the EATCS-IPEC Nerode Prize 2014 for outstanding papers in multivariate algorithmics is out. The award committee consists of Georg Gottlob (Oxford University), Jan Arne Telle (University of Bergen) and Peter Widmayer (ETH Zurich, chair). Do make their job hard by nominating your favourite eligible papers!

Turing Machine Opera by Helsinki Skaala Opera

The full show can be watched by starting from this link.

ERC Advanced Grants to TCS researchers

A couple of days ago, the ERC announced that, in its sixth and last Advanced  Grant competition under the EU's Seventh Research Framework Programme, it is awarding over €660 million to 284 senior research leaders. TCS folks will be happy to hear that the following colleagues of ours have been awarded ERC Advanced Grants:

• Monika Henzinger. Challenges in Graph Algorithms with Applications.
• Rachid Guerraoui. Adversary-Oriented Computing.
• Pavel Pudlak. Feasibility, logic and randomness in computational complexity.
• Jean-Daniel Boissonnat. Algorithmic Foundations of Geometry Understanding in Higher Dimensions.
• David Pointcheval. Cryptography for the Cloud.
• Nello Cristianini. Patterns in Big Data: Methods, Applications and Implications. 
• Leslie Ann Goldberg. Mapping the Complexity of Counting.

Congratulations to the award recipients! I am sure that, with the support of the ERC, they will advance the state of the art in their respective fields of interest, benefiting TCS as a whole.

Addendum: As kindly pointed out by anonymous commenters, I have failed to mention that Nati Linial received an ERC Advanced Grant for the project High-dimensional combinatorics and that Lex Schrijver got one for Applying Fundamental Mathematics in Discrete Mathematics, Optimization, and Algorithmics. These two grants are in the field of mathematics, as is the one awarded to Saharon Shelah for the project Model theory and its applications: dependent classes.

Call for Nominations for the Presburger Award 2014

Presburger Award for Young Scientists 2014 

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 

Deadline: December 31st, 2013

Starting in 2010, the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) established the Presburger Award. The Award is conferred annually at the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP) to a young scientist (in exceptional cases to several young scientists) for outstanding contributions in theoretical computer science, documented by a published paper or a series of published papers. The Award is named after Mojzesz Presburger who accomplished his path-breaking work on decidability of the theory of addition (which today is called Presburger arithmetic) as a student in 1929.

Nominations for the Presburger Award can be submitted by any member or group of members of the theoretical computer science community except the nominee and his/her advisors for the master thesis and the doctoral dissertation. Nominated scientists have to be at most 35 years at the time of the deadline of nomination (i.e., for the Presburger Award of 2014 the date of birth should be in 1978 or later).

The Presburger Award Committee of 2014 consists of Antonin Kucera (Brno, chair), Claire Mathieu (Paris), and Peter Widmayer (Zurich). Nominations, consisting of a two page justification and (links to) the respective papers, as well as additional supporting letters, should be sent by e-mail to:

Antonin Kucera
kucera@fi.muni.cz

The subject line of every nomination should start with "Presburger Award 2014", and the message must be received before December 31st, 2013.

The award includes an amount of 1000 Euro and an invitation to ICALP 2014 for a lecture. The Presburger Award is sponsored by CWI, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica.

Previous Winners:

• Mikolaj Bojanczyk, 2010 
• Patricia Bouyer-Decitre, 2011 
• Venkatesan Guruswami and Mihai Patrascu, 2012 
• Erik Demaine, 2013 

Official website: http://www.eatcs.org/index.php/presburger

Call for nominations: EATCS Fellows

At its meeting at ICALP 2013 in Riga, the EATCS Council decided to start an EATCS Fellows Programme. The first call for nominations is appended.

I hope that EATCS members will submit strong nominations for consideration by the first EATCS Fellow-Selection Committee, which is chaired by Anca Muscholl. The deadline for nominations is December 31. The EATCS fellows will be announced at ICALP 2014 in Copenhagen.

                                                        
                                                                     
                                             
          CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR EATCS FELLOWS 2014
                                                                              
                                             
INSTRUCTIONS:
Please note: all nominees and nominators must be EATCS Members

Submit by December 31 of the current year for Fellow consideration by
email to the EATCS Secretary (secretary@eatcs.org). The subject line
of the email should read "EATCS Fellow Nomination - ".

REQUIREMENTS FOR EATCS NOMINATION:

The EATCS Fellows Program is established by the Association to
recognize outstanding EATCS Members for their scientific achievements
in the field of Theoretical Computer Science. The Fellow status is
conferred by the EATCS Fellows-Selection Committee upon a person
having a track record of intellectual and organizational leadership
within the EATCS community.  Fellows are expected to be “model
citizens” of the TCS community, helping to develop the standing of TCS
beyond the frontiers of the community.

In order to be considered by the EATCS Fellows-Selection Committee,
candidates must be nominated by at least four EATCS Members.  
Please verify your membership at http://www.eatcs.org/.

The EATCS Fellows-Selection Committee consists of 

- Rocco De Nicola (IMT Lucca, Italy) 
- Paul Goldberg (Oxford, UK)
- Anca Muscholl (Bordeaux, France, chair)
- Dorothea Wagner (Karlsruhe, Germany)
- Roger Wattenhofer (ETH Zurich, CH)

INSTRUCTIONS:

A nomination should consist of answers to the questions below. It can
be co-signed by several EATCS members. At least two nomination letters 
per candidate are recommended. If you are supporting the
nomination from within the candidate's field of
expertise, it is expected that you will be specific about the
individual's technical contributions.

To be considered, nominations for 2014 must be received by December 31, 2013.

1. Name of candidate
Candidate's current affiliation and position
Candidate's email address, postal address and phone number
Nominator(s) relationship to the candidate

2. Short summary of candidate's accomplishments (citation -- 25 words or less)

3. Candidate's accomplishments: Identify the most important
contributions that qualify the candidate for the rank of EATCS Fellow
according to the following two categories: 

A) Technical achievements
B) Outstanding service to the TCS community

Please limit your comments to at most three pages.

4. Nominator(s):
Name(s)
Affiliation(s), email and postal address(es), phone number(s)

Gödel Prize 2014: Call for Nominations

I should be grateful if you could help disseminate this call for nominations. Feel free to post it on your blogs, send it to your collaborators and your department members, and post it on social networks. 

The Gödel Prize 2014
Call for Nominations

Deadline: January 17, 2014.
The Gödel Prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science is sponsored jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (ACM-SIGACT). The award is presented annually, with the presentation taking place alternately at the International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP) and the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC). The 22nd Gödel Prize will be awarded at the 41st ICALP in Copenhagen in July 2014.

The Prize is named in honor of Kurt Gödel in recognition of his major contributions to mathematical logic and of his interest, discovered in a letter he wrote to John von Neumann shortly before von Neumann’s death, in what has become the famous “P versus NP” question. The Prize includes an award of USD 5000.

Award Committee: The winner of the Prize is selected by a committee of six members. The EATCS President and the SIGACT Chair each appoint three members to the committee, to serve staggered three-year terms. The committee is chaired alternately by representatives of EATCS and SIGACT. The 2014 Award Committee consists of Krzysztof Apt (CWI Amsterdam), Giuseppe F. Italiano (Università di Roma Tor Vergata), Joseph Mitchell (State University of New York at Stony Brook), Andrew Pitts (University of Cambridge), Daniel Spielman (Yale
University), and Éva Tardos (Cornell University).

Eligibility: The rules for the 2014 Prize are given below and they supersede any different interpretation of the generic rule to be found on websites of both SIGACT and EATCS. Any research paper or series of papers by a single author or by a team of authors is deemed eligible if

1. the paper was published in a recognized refereed journal no later than December 31, 2013;
2. the main results were not published (in either preliminary or final form) in a journal or conference proceedings before January 1st, 2001.

The research work nominated for the award should be in the area of theoretical computer science. The term “theoretical computer science” is meant to encompass, but is not restricted to, research areas covered by ICALP and STOC. Nominations are encouraged from the broadest spectrum of the theoretical computer science community so as to ensure that potential award winning papers are not overlooked. The Award Committee shall have the ultimate authority to decide whether a particular paper is eligible for the Prize.

Nominations: Nominations for the award should be submitted by email to the Award Committee Chair Giuseppe F. Italiano: goedelprize at gmail dot com

Please make sure that the Subject line of all nominations and related messages begin with Goedel Prize 2014. To be considered, nominations for the 2014 Prize must be received by January 17, 2014.

Any member of the scientific community can make nominations. The Award Committee may actively solicit nominations. A nomination should contain a brief summary of the technical content of the paper(s) and a brief explanation of its significance. A printable copy of the research paper or papers should accompany the nomination. The nomination must state the date and venue of the first conference or workshop publication or state that no such publication has
occurred. The work may be in any language. However, if it is not in English, a more extended summary written in English should be enclosed. To be considered for the award, the paper or series of papers must be recommended by at least two individuals, either in the form of two distinct nominations or one nomination including recommendations from two different people. Additional recommendations may also be enclosed and are generally useful. The Award
Committee encourages recommendation and support letters to be mailed separately, without being necessarily shared with the nominator(s). The rest of the nomination package should be sent in a single email whenever possible. Those intending to submit a nomination should contact the Award Committee Chair by email well in advance. The Chair will answer questions about eligibility, encourage coordination among different nominators for the same paper(s), and also accept informal proposals of potential nominees or tentative offers to prepare formal nominations. The committee maintains a database of past nominations for eligible papers, but fresh nominations for the same papers (especially if they highlight new evidence of impact) are always welcome.

Selection Process: The Award Committee is free to use any other sources of information in addition to the ones mentioned above. It may split the award among multiple papers or declare no winner at all. All matters relating to the selection process left unspecified in this document are left to the discretion of the Award Committee.

EATCS Award 2014: Call for Nominations

The European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) annually honours a respected scientist from our community with the prestigious EATCS Distinguished Achievement Award. The award is given to acknowledge extensive and widely recognized contributions to theoretical computer science over a life long scientific career.

For the EATCS Award 2014, candidates may be nominated to the Award Committee consisting of

• Leslie Ann Goldberg (University of Oxford)
• Kim Guldstrand Larsen (Aalborg University)
• Vladimiro Sassone (University of Southampton)

The deadline for nominations is December 31, 2013. Nominations will be kept strictly confidential. They should include supporting justification and be sent by e-mail to the chair of the EATCS Award Committee:

Leslie Ann Goldberg,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Oxford,
Wolfson Bldg, Parks Rd,
Oxford OX1 3QD United Kingdom
Email: leslie.goldberg@cs.ox.ac.uk

The list of previous recipients of the EATCS Award may be found at http://eatcs.org/index.php/eatcs-award.

The next award will be presented during ICALP 2014, which will be held in the period 7-11 July 2014 in Copenhagen,

Preliminary call for papers for ICALP 2014

The preliminary call for papers for ICALP 2014 is available here. (Warning: it is 19 MB, so don't be surprised if it takes some time to download it.) In case, you do not want to download the file, here is the most relevant information. (In the light of a suggestion in one of the comments to this post, I copy-pasted the whole preliminary CFP below.)

Conference dates: 7-11 July 2014
Submission deadline: 14 Feb. 2014
Notification date: 11 Apr. 2014
Final version due: 28 Apr. 2014
Location: IT University Copenhagen

The PC chairs are Elias Koutsopias (Track A), Javier Esparza (Track B) and Pierre Fraigniaud (Track C).

The invited speakers are

• Sanjeev Arora (Princeton University, USA),
• Maurice Herlihy (Brown University, USA)
• Viktor Kuncak (EPFL, CH), and
• Claire Mathieu (ENS Paris, France).

I hope that you will submit your best work to the conference. There will be a lot going on in Copenhagen in early late June-early July, both scientifically (SEA 2014, SWAT 2014 and ICALP 2014 will all take place one after the other) and culturally.

------------------------ FULL PRELIMINARY CFP -------------

ICALP 2014

7 July – 11 July 2014

IT University of Copenhagen

Preliminary Call for Papers

Invited speakers:

Sanjeev Arora • Maurice Herlihy • Viktor Kuncak • Claire Mathieu

Committees

Track A

Elias Koutsoupias (chair) • Dimitris Achlioptas • Pankaj Agrawal • Nikhil Bansal •

Gerth Stølting Brodal • Jean Cardinal • Ning Chen • Giorgos Christodoulou • Xiaotie Deng • Ilias Diakonikolas • Chaled Elbassioni • Amos Fiat • Leslie Goldberg • Vipul Goyal • Giuseppe Italiano • Marcin Kaminsky • Haim Kaplan • Ioardanis Kerenidis • Anna Karlin • Robert Krauthgamer • James Lee • Ashwin Nayak • Jared Saia • Piotr Sankowski • Maria Serna • Christian Sohler • Ryan Williams

Track B

Javier Esparza (chair) • Paolo Baldan • Michele Boreale • Tomas Brazdil • Véronique Bruyère • Veronique Cortier • Anuj Dawar • Kousha Etessami • Maribel Fernandez • David Frutos Escrig • Pierre Ganty • Peter Habermehl • Manfred Kufleitner • Slawomir Lasota • Oded Maler • Sebastian Maneth • Madhavan Mukund • JensPalsberg • Thomas Schwentick • Sonja Smets • Jiri Srba • Steve Zdancewic

Track C

Pierre Fraigniaud (chair) • Keren Censor-Hillel • Andrea Clementi • Benjamin Doerr • Panagiota Fatourou • Michal Feldman • Antonio Fernández Anta • Leszek Gasieniec • Phillip B. Gibbons • Magnus Halldorsson • Robert Kleinberg • Anne‑Marie Kermarrec• Michal Koucky • Gopal Pandurangan • Boaz Patt-Shamir • Andrea Pietracaprina • Andrea Richa • Luís Rodrigues • Christian Scheideler  •  Jukka Suomela • Philipp Woelfel

Organization

Thore Husfeldt (chair), thore@itu.dk

Important dates

Submission deadline: Friday, 14 February 2014

Author notification: Friday, 11 April 2014

Final manuscript due: Monday, 28 April 201

Publication of the best Italian PhD theses in TCS

The Italian Chapter of the EATCS has reached an agreement with Atlantis Press (an imprint of Springer) for the publication of the best Italian PhD theses in TCS in a  special series. Fabio Mogavero's thesis, awarded last year, is the first volume published under this agreement and can be found here.  The thesis of the other winner from last year, Rossano Venturini, will be released soon.

Jacopo Mauro and Alessandra Scafuro are the two recipients of the Best Italian Ph.D. Thesis in Theoretical Computer Science Award 2013, and their theses will appear in the above-mentioned series in due course.

Congratulations to the above-mentioned young researchers!