ACM established the Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize and encourage superior research and writing by doctoral candidates in computer science and engineering. The award is presented each June at the ACM Awards Banquet and is accompanied by a prize of $20,000 plus travel expenses to the banquet. As of January 1, 2014 all winning dissertations are published exclusively in print and electronic formats as part of the ACM Books Series, which includes distribution through the ACM Digital Library. Honorable Mention(s) may also be awarded, with a prize of $10,000 shared among recipients.
- Eligibility: The nominated dissertation must have been successfully defended and submitted between October 1, 2023 through (and including) September 30, 2024. Only a PhD student’s thesis supervisor may nominate a dissertation.
- Note regarding the competitiveness of this award: UBC may nominate only 2 dissertations to the international competition, and only 1 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award is offered by ACM annually worldwide.
- Nomination: Supervisors need to submit the nomination statement(s) (nomination statement should be written by the supervisor of 200-300 words in length), to admissions@mech.ubc.ca by 8:00AM on Friday, 20 September 2024.
Note that, should the student be selected to be one of UBC’s nominees, the PhD student’s thesis supervisor will be responsible for submitting the nomination items to ACM by the October 31 institution nomination deadline. ACM requires that the nomination be submitted by the PhD student’s thesis supervisor.
The full nomination package includes:
- Suggested citation if the candidate is selected. This should be a concise statement (maximum of 25 words) describing the key technical or professional accomplishment for which the candidate merits this award.
- Nomination statement (200-300 words in length) addressing why the candidate should receive this award. This should address the significance of the dissertation, not simply repeat the information in the abstract.
- An endorsement letter from the department head.
- At least 3, and not more than 5, supporting letters should be included from experts in the field who can provide additional insights or evidence of the dissertation’s impact. (The nominator/advisor may not write a letter of support.)
- Copy of the dissertation, together with a copyright transfer form filled out by the candidate and assigning exclusive publication rights to ACM. Copyright will revert to the author if it is not selected for publication.
For further information, including detailed nomination procedures, please visit: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/acm-doctoral-dissertation-award