AWARDS

ACM recognizes excellence through its eminent series of awards for outstanding technical and professional achievements and contributions in computer science and information technology.

ACM Distinguished Member Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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ACM Distinguished Member grade has three categories: Distinguished Educator, Distinguished Engineer and Distinguished Scientist, recognizing achievements in different areas. Nominations for each category are considered separately.

For additional information please refer to the Distinguished Member Guidelines.


Who is eligible to apply for a Distinguished Member Grade?
Candidates must have been ACM Professional Members for at least five years prior to the deadline, have 15 years professional experience, and demonstrate having achieved a significant accomplishment in (or significant impact on) the field of computing, computer science, and/or information technology. Both general and selected category (Educator, Engineer, Scientist) criteria must be met. Examples can be found in Item 2 of the Distinguished Member Guidelines.

The Distinguished Member program recognizes up to 10% of the top ACM Professional Members. Candidates may nominate themselves or may be nominated by another ACM Professional Member.

How can I confirm that I have been a Professional Member for the required time?
You can verify how long you have been a member by logging in to myACM and viewing "My Services", or by contacting the ACM Membership Services Department at +1-212-626-0500 or

How do I submit a nomination for Distinguished Member?
Nominations (and endorsements) must be submitted online.

When can I submit a nomination?
Nominations are accepted year-round and are reviewed annually. The current deadline is posted on the ACM Awards Web site. A complete nomination package, i.e., the nomination and the required number of endorsements that have submitted and confirmed, must be received by the deadline date in order to be considered in the current cycle.

Is ACM membership a requirement for endorsers?
At least two of your endorsements must be ACM Professional Members, and it is strongly recommended, but not required, that these endorsements be from ACM Fellows or ACM Distinguished Members. Current members of the Distinguished Member Committee may not endorse a Candidate. The minimum number of endorsers is 4 and the maximum is 5.

How do my endorsers submit their endorsements?
Endorsements must be submitted online using the encrypted URL that the candidate provides to the endorsers. After an endorsement is submitted, the endorser will receive an email from or with an encrypted URL to confirm. Endorsements must be confirmed to be counted. Please note that the endorsers' statements are considered to be of particular significance to the Distinguished Member Committee. The character limit for endorsers' comments is 2,500.

How do I check the status of my Distinguished Member nomination?
An endorsement tracker link will be sent to you in an email from after the nomination has been submitted. You will need to log in with your ACM Web account. The tracker site will allow you to check the status of your endorsements and to send a reminder to endorsers to confirm their endorsements.

My endorser did not receive the email message to confirm the endorsement which is still pending.
The endorser should contact us if the email is not received. The email may have been caught in a spam filter, or the email address may have been entered incorrectly.

One of my endorsers submitted the endorsement and incorrectly answered "No" to one of the three qualifying questions, and now the endorsement has been rejected.
Please ask your endorser to contact us and we will make the correction and will send your endorser the link to confirm.

When confirming my endorsement, an error message was received stating there is something wrong with the URL.
Please cut and paste the entire URL/link into your browser (remove any hard returns). If you still receive an error, please contact

My system shows that the characters entered are less than the maximum, however, an error message stated that the character limit has been exceeded.
The character limit includes spaces and hard returns. You will need to shorten the text within the field in order to submit. Please note - the character limits are 4,000 for the nomination Accomplishments section and 2,500 for the endorsers Comments section.

After submitting my nomination/endorsement can I access it to make minor changes?
After the nomination/endorsement has been submitted, the nominator/endorser is no longer able to make changes. Please contact us with any minor corrections/changes.

My endorser(s) submitted the endorsement after the deadline. Must I resubmit the nomination?
No, nominations that are not ready for review in the latest cycle will be automatically forwarded to the next cycle.

When will I know if I have been selected, and how will I be notified?
The Committee will complete its selections within 45 to 60 days of the latest deadline.** All candidates whose nominations are completed by the deadline will be notified via postal mail as soon as the Distinguished Member Committee has completed the selection process.

If I am not selected can I resubmit my nomination?
Yes, if a candidate is not selected in a given year, he or she can resubmit their nomination. If a candidate is not accepted two years in a row, a wait of one year is required before that candidate can be considered again. Previously submitted endorsements can be reused, but it is recommended that the nominator obtain new endorsements, since the candidate information and the ACM membership status of the endorsers may have changed.