Communications - June 2008

Call for Nominations

The ACM Doctoral Dissertation Competition

RULES OF THE COMPETITION ACM established the Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize and encourage superior research and writing by doctoral candidates in computer science and engineering. These awards are presented annually at the ACM Awards Banquet.

SUBMISSIONS: Nominations are limited to one per university or college, from any country, unless more than 10 Ph.D.’s are granted in one year, in which case two may be nominated.

DEADLINE: Submissions must be received at ACM headquarters by September 30, 2008 to qualify for consideration. This date is not negotiable.

ELIGIBILITY: Each nominated dissertation must have been accepted by the department within a 12- month period prior to September 30, 2008. Exceptional dissertations completed in September 2007, but too late for submission last year will be considered. Only English language versions will be accepted. Please send a copy of the thesis in PDF format to emily.eng@acm.org. If a PDF is not possible, send a copy to the address listed here.

SPONSORSHIP: Each nomination shall be forwarded by the thesis advisor and must include the endorsement of the department head. A one-page summary of the significance of the dissertation written by the advisor must accompany the transmittal.

PUBLICATION RIGHTS: Each nomination must be accompanied by an assignment to ACM by the author of exclusive publication rights.

PUBLICATION: Winning dissertations will be published by Springer.

SELECTION PROCEDURE: Each nominated dissertation will be screened by three to six specialists in the relevant fields to provide a preliminary evaluation.

On the basis of these evaluations, five finalists will be chosen for submission to a selection committee of six persons who serve staggered terms of three years.

The selection committee will select the winning dissertation by December 15.

AWARD: The Doctoral Dissertation Award is accompanied by a prize of $20,000 and the Honorable Mention Award is accompanied by a prize of $10,000. Financial sponsorship of the award is provided by Google.