CATCS Newsletter 2020

[Shuchi Chawla]

Dear colleagues,

I hope you are well during these unprecedented times. In this annual newsletter I am writing to share some upcoming CATCS projects as well as other news relevant to the theory community. Please feel free to forward this message to your theory-friendly colleagues. 

1. CATCS is organizing a virtual "Visioning Workshop" in July this year. Similar to a 2008 visioning workshop, the goal is to identify TCS research themes that have potential for a major impact in the future and packaging these in a manner that can be shared with funding agencies. Anyone interested in participating can apply by filling out this form before June 15. More details can be found here.

2. Considering the potential impact of COVID-19 on the job market in the coming year, the CCC and CRA have announced a new Computing Innovation Fellows program that will fund postdocs at US institutions. The application deadline is on June 17 and more information can be found here.

3. Following up on our pilot effort from last year, we will collect and publicize TCS job candidate profiles later this year. More information about this effort is forthcoming towards the end of the summer.  

Finally and most importantly, we can all play a part in helping the most vulnerable members of our community weather upcoming economic challenges. Here are some ways in which YOU can help:

- Consider mentoring a new postdoc over the next year or two. The CCC has created a crowdsourced spreadsheet of potential mentors for the CI Fellows program here. Please consider adding your name to it.

- If possible, consider extending positions of your current graduate students and postdocs.

- If you have funding available for postdocs, or your institution is hiring, or you are aware of other positions at your institution (e.g. teaching postdocs), please post these on the cstheory-jobs website. 

Please feel free to reach out to me with questions, comments and suggestions.

Best wishes,

Shuchi Chawla

(On behalf of the CATCS)