Call for Nominations
The ACM Doctoral Dissertation Competition

DEADLINE: October 31, 2011

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.

Eligibility

Each nominated dissertation must have been accepted (successfully defended) by the department between October 2010 and September 2011. Exceptional dissertations completed in September 2010, 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.

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 signi?cance of the dissertation written by the advisor must accompany the transmittal.

Deadline

Submissions must be received by October 31, 2011 to qualify for consideration.

Publication Rights

Each nomination must be accompanied by an assignment to ACM by the author of exclusive publication rights. (Copyright reverts to author if not selected for publication.)

Publication

Winning dissertations will be published by ACM in the ACM Digital Library, not by Springer as previously noted.

Selection Procedure

Dissertations will be reviewed for technical depth and significance of the research contribution, potential impact on theory and practice, and quality of presentation. A committee of five individuals serving staggered five-year terms performs an initial screening to generate a short list, followed by an in-depth evaluation to determine the winning dissertation.

The selection committee will select the winning dissertation in early 2012.

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.

Submission Procedure Summary

A nomination must include:

1. Nomination letter by thesis advisor. This letter must include:
   
   1. the name, address, and phone number of the advisor,
      
   2. the name, mailing address and email address of the candidate, and
      
   3. a one-page summary of the significance of the dissertation.
      
2. An endorsement letter by the department head.
3. One copy of the thesis in electronic format
   
4. A copyright transfer form http://www.acm.org/publications/copyright_form/, signed by the candidate. (select the Journals form)

Optional:

• Supporting letters are helfpul and you are not limited to any amount, so feel free to submit as many as you would like. Please ask these supporters to include their name, address and telephone number.

Please note that you do not need to mail in hard copies. All nomination materials may be submitted electronically (pdf or Word format) to the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Coordinator at: emily.eng@acm.org. Submissions may be sent bundled in one email, it is not necessary to separate each category (nomination in one email, endorsement letter in another email, etc). The supporting letters need not come directly from the writer - candidates may collect all necessary materials and submit at one time.

If you are unable to submit electronic documents, you may send hard copies to:

ACM
Doctoral Dissertation Coordinator
2 Penn Plaza Suite 701
New York, NY 10121-0701, USA