The Edsger W. Dijkstra
Prize in Distributed Computing is named for Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930-2002), a pioneer in the area of distributed
computing. His foundational work on concurrency, semaphores, mutual
exclusion, deadlock, finding shortest paths in graphs, fault-tolerance,
self-stabilization, among many other contributions comprises one of the
most important supports upon which the field of distributed computing
is built. No other individual has had a larger influence on
research in principles of distributed computing.
The prize
is given for outstanding papers on the principles ofdistributed
computing, whose significance and impact on the theory and/or practice
of distributed computing has been evident for at least a decade. The
Prize includes an award of $2000.
The Prize is sponsored jointly by the ACM Symposium on
Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC) and
the EATCS Symposium on Distributed Computing
(DISC). This award is presented annually, with the presentation taking
place alternately at ACM PODC (even years)
and EATCS DISC (odd years).
The winners of the award will share the cash award, and each winning
author will be presented with a plaque. An announcement of each
year's prize recipient(s) will be included in the ACM PODC and EATCS DISC
proceedings of that year, describing the paper's lasting contributions.
The Award Committee
The winner of the
Prize is selected by a committee of six members. The Award Committee
will consist of the current PODC and DISC
program chairs, the PODC program chairs from
five and ten years ago, and the DISC program chairs from five and ten
years ago. The Award Committee will be chaired alternatively by the
current PODC (odd years) and DISC (even
years) program chairs. If any of the two earlier PODC
or DISC program chairs are unable to serve on
the committee, then the current committee chair will find a replacement
of similar stature.
If the resulting committee consists of less than six distinct
members (due to one or more persons being eligible to serve on the
committee in multiple roles) then the chair of the committee will select
addition member(s) of similar stature so that the committee consists of
six members.
Nominations and Eligibility
At least four months prior to each year's PODC
or DISC (whichever comes earlier), a Call for Nominations will be
posted on the PODC and DISC mailing lists.
Nominations may be made by any member of the scientific community. Each
nomination must identify the paper being nominated and include a short
paragraph (approximately 200 words) justifying the nomination.
Papers appearing in any conference proceedings or journal are
eligible, as long as they have had a significant impact on research
areas of interest within the theory of distributed computing community,
and as long as the year of the original publication is at least ten
years prior to the year in which the award is given.
Papers authored or co-authored by members of the Award Committee
will not be eligible for consideration.
Members of the Award Committee can nominate papers as
well. However, they must carefully consider nominations from
within the community. Members of the Award Committee should be
especially sensitive to conflict-of-interests issues if papers by
former students or close colleagues are nominated (members of the Award
Committee cannot nominate such papers themselves).
Although the Award Committee is encouraged to consult with the
distributed computing community at large, the Award Committee is solely
responsible for the selection of the winner of the award. The
prize may be shared by more than one paper. All matters relating to the
selection process that are not specified here are left to the
discretion of the Award Committee.
Past Prizes
2006: John M. Mellor-Crummey and Michael L. Scott for "Algorithms
for scalable synchronization on shared-memory multiprocessors,"
ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, 9(1), 1991. [more]
2005: Marshal Pease, Robert Shostak, and Leslie Lamport
for "Reaching agreement in the presence of faults", Journal
of the Association of Computing Machinery, April, 1980, 27(1):228-234.
[more]
2004: R. G. Gallager,
P. A. Humblet, and P. M. Spira
for "A Distributed Algorithm for Minimum-Weight Spanning
Trees", ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems,
January 1983, 5(1):66-77. [more]
2003: Maurice Herlihy
for "Wait-Free Synchronization", ACM Transactions on
Programming Languages and Systems, January 1991, 13(1):124-149. [more]
Prizes in the years 2000-2002 were given under the name "PODC Influential-Paper Award".
2002: Edsger W. Dijkstra for "Self-stabilizing systems in
spite of distributed control," Communications of the ACM, 1974,
17(11):643-644. [more]
2001: Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch,
and Michael S. Paterson for "Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One
Faulty Process," Journal of the ACM, April 1985, 32(2):374-382. [more]
2000: Leslie Lamport
for "Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed
System," Communications of the ACM, July 1978, 21(7):558-565. [more]
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