ACM Senior Member

Overview

Senior Member nominations are reviewed in cycles over the course of the year (every three months). This webpage describes the process and requirements for nominations. For helpful suggestions, see Frequently Asked Questions.

Next Deadline

March 3, 2025 - End of Day, Anywhere on Earth (AoE), UTC -12

Eligibility

Prior to the submission deadline, a candidate must have accrued:

1. At least 10 years of professional experience in the computing field. The candidate's highest completed college degree counts toward that time as follows: 5 years for a doctorate, 4 for masters, 3 for baccalaureate, or 2 for associate degree

2. At least 5 years of professional ACM membership in the last 10 years (to verify membership eligibility, contact [email protected])

Selection Criteria

 Successful candidates for Senior Member must have demonstrated performance through technical leadership, and technical or professional contributions.  In general, this will be reflected in one or more of the following:

• Technical leadership: project/engineering leadership, research leadership, education leadership, management, etc.

• Technical contributions: publications in refereed journals or conference proceedings, textbooks, success product engineering/development, patents, standards, etc.
• Professional contributions: service to professional societies, review committees, conference committees, standards committees, etc.

The candidate's description of his/her own accomplishments is reviewed and evaluated. However, the Committee gives particular weight to the supporting evidence provided by the endorsers, who must be individuals with personal knowledge of the candidate's work.

Submissions

Candidates nominate themselves for Senior Member using the online nomination form.  The requirements for nominations and endorsements are described below; further details further detail and examples will be found under Frequently Asked Questions. Advice for nominators and endorsers can be found here

All materials must be submitted in English. Each nomination involves several components:

Please note that all character counts include spaces.

• Basic information about the candidate (including ACM membership number or username).
• Description of accomplishments showing that the candidate deserves recognition as a Senior Member (limited to 4,000 characters).
• Candidate's educational background, including institution, degree, year conferred, and major discipline.
• Candidate's professional background (organization, time period, and position held) and a summary of the candidate's experience (limited to 1,500 characters).
• Supporting letters from at 3 endorsers (see below). After submitting his/her nomination, the candidate will be sent an encrypted URL to forward to endorsers, enabling them to access the endorsement site (limited to 2,500 characters).

Endorsements

The candidate must secure endorsements from 3 colleagues in the field (not necessarily ACM members), who have personal knowledge of the candidate's work (e.g., co-authors, collaborators, supervisors). The endorsers attest that they know the candidate's work and that the candidate accurately described his/her achievements. They also explain why they believe the accomplishments meet the criteria for Senior Member. Candidates are advised to contact potential endorsers to get their consent.  We also recommend that endorsers be sent the information about what endorsements should include (from the Frequently Asked Questions webpage); many nominations fail simply because the endorsers didn't receive good instructions from the candidate. 

NOTE: After submitting the endorsement form, each endorser will be sent an email from [email protected] with an encrypted URL which must be used to confirm the endorsement. Please warn your endorsers in advance that they should expect that email and be prepared to respond to it promptly (or should contact [email protected] if it doesn't arrive).

Further information is available on the Frequently Asked Questions webpage. If you still have specific questions, please send them to Jade Morris, ACM Awards Committee Liaison. ACM's conflict-of-interest guidelines all membership grade nominations.