Kanellakis Award
Daniel Yellin
ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award
The ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is given to an individual
or group for a specific theoretical accomplishment that has had a
significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing. The
nature of the theoretical accomplishment may be either an invention
itself or a major analytic study of an existing technique that led
practitioners to adopt it.
The Award has been established in memory of the late Paris C. Kanellakis,
whose tragic death in late 1995 cut short a distinguished
research career. The monetary amount of the award will be $5,000, to
be paid from an endowment established for this purpose. The frequency
of the award will depend on the size of the endowment, but should be at
least once every three years. The first award was given in March 1997
to Leonard Adleman, Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman, Ralph Merkle,
Ronald Rivest, and Adi Shamir for the conception and first effective
realization of public-key cryptography.
Winners of the award will be chosen by a 6-member committee appointed
by the ACM Awards Committee Chair. Membership on the committee will be
on a rotating basis, with 5-year terms. The current committee consists
of Barbara Liskov, David Johnson, Tom Leighton, Christos Papadimitriou
(chair), Moshe Vardi, and Peter Wegner. The committee will actively
solicit
nominations from the computing research and practitioner communities, as
well as outside advice on questions of practical and theoretical
significance
and of priority. Nominations from previous years will typically be
carried forward. The committee also reserves the right to make its own
nominations. Winners will be selected based on both the importance of
the practical impact and the quality of the theoretical
accomplishment.
In addition to choosing award winners, the Prize Committee will also
prepare an extended award citation suitable for publication in all ACM
announcements as well as in the ACM Awards Program brochure, based on
the nomination and other relevant information obtained by the committee
in evaluating the nominee.
A nomination will consist of three related parts.
(1) A discussion of the theoretical work being nominated, including
copies of relevant publications or other documentation of the
accomplishment.
(2) A description of the claimed practical impact, together with
evidence supporting the claims, either in the form of published
references or attached statements by one or more top practitioners in
the relevant field.
(3) Evidence of the linkage between the theoretical work and the
practical impact, either in the form of documentation that implies the
linkage, or attached statements from the implementers attesting to it.
It is not required that the nominees were involved in the transfer from
theory to practice, though such an involvement will strengthen the
nomination. The theoretical contribution should have occurred within
25 years of the date of the award. For the 1998 award, this means that
contributions that were made in 1973 or later are eligible.
Nominations should be sent by October 1, 1997 to
Christos Papadimitriou
Computer Science Division
689 Soda Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94270-1776
(510) 642-1559
chri...@cs.berkeley.edu