“AIROYoung Dissertation Award” 2025
Airo Young
The deadline is this Friday (May 16, 2025).
Call for Applications for the Ph.D. Thesis
“AIROYoung Dissertation Award ” 2025
AIROYoung (AY) announces the “AIROYoung Dissertation Award ” 2025 for the best doctoral thesis discussed in Operations Research at an Italian university during the period July 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025.
PROCESS OF SELECTION, EVALUATION,
AND PRESENTATION OF THE FINALIST THESES
To evaluate the applications received, AY will identify jurors external to its board (current and previous).
In particular, the selection process will be divided into the following three phases:
A first committee of reviewers will conduct a preliminary evaluation of the doctoral theses. For each thesis, two reviewers will each create a report justifying a score of up to 85 points according to the criteria indicated below:
Pertinence of the thesis topic(s) (maximum 15 points)
Scientific contribution (maximum 35 points)
Impact and interdisciplinarity (maximum 25 points)
Writing quality (maximum 10 points)
Based on the same criteria, a second committee will receive all the reports of all the reviewers to compare all the theses overall and provide a comparative score for the publications taken from the thesis (with a 15-point maximum), thus obtaining a definitive evaluation and a ranking. At most, the first four theses in the ranking will be named finalists and will access the special session to be held during the next edition of the International Conference on Optimization and Decision Science (ODS 2025).
During the special session at ODS 2025, a third committee will evaluate the presentation of the finalist theses, awarding up to 10 points to each candidate, also considering its presentation and communication skills.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNING THESIS
The thesis receiving the highest overall score will be declared the winner and will be announced during ODS 2025.
In case of a tie, the winning thesis will be the one that obtained the highest score at the end of the second round. In case of a further tie, there will be an ex aequo, and the prize will be divided.
PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS
To be able to participate, you must:
Have discussed a doctoral thesis on Operations Research topics between 01/07/2024 and 31/05/2025 at an Italian university;
Be an AIRO member for the calendar year 2025 or 2026. Having participated in ODS 2024 or being registered to ODS 2025 grants automatic AIRO membership for the year 2025 or 2026, respectively.
Not being registered for ODS 2025 when the application is submitted does not represent an exclusion criterion from the call. However, in-presence presentations for the finalists during ODS 2025 will be mandatory. To effectively organise the session, the finalists not already registered for ODS 2025 will be directly contacted by the AIROYoung board.
HOW TO APPLY
The application form must be submitted by filling in the following Google Form:
Application Form for the “AIROYoung Dissertation Award” 2025
Deadline to participate: April 30, 2025. May 16, 2025
Specifically, in addition to personal data and a contact address, anyone wishing to apply must attach the following documents (all in PDF format):
A copy of the doctoral thesis;
A summary of the thesis (in English; font-size: 11pt; maximum length: 5 pages, bibliographical references excluded);
A copy of their curriculum vitae (in English);
A certificate of successful thesis defense, or a document from (at least) one supervisor indicating the scheduled defense date, which must be no later than May 31, 2025.
If any, a copy of each publication taken from the thesis (publications that do not pertain to the thesis content will not be taken into consideration by the reviewers);
A proof of the AIRO membership for the calendar year 2025 or 2026, such as:
the certificate of participation in the ODS 2024 conference (the registration fee for the conference included the AIRO membership fee for 2025);
the registration receipt for the ODS 2025 conference (the registration fee for the conference includes the AIRO membership fee for 2026);
the receipt of the payment made to AIRO to become a member in 2025.
AWARD
Each finalist will receive a certificate. The winning person will also receive a cash prize of € 500. In case of an ex aequo, the prize will be divided in half.
For more information, contact the AY board: airo.young....@gmail.com