Call for nominations: Principles of Distributed Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award 2026

** Apologies for multiple posting **




*=========================================================Principles of
Distributed Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award 2026Call for
Nominations=========================================================*

We are soliciting nominations for the 2026 Principles of Distributed
Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award. The award will be presented
at International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC) 2026,
to be held in Rome, Italy on TBD, 2026.

Submission deadline: January 31, 2026
Submission: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=distrcompdoctoraldis0
Information about the award: https://www.podc.org/dissertation/
                   (or
https://www.disc-conference.org/wp/doctoral-dissertation-award/ )



*=========================================================Submission
Guidelines=========================================================*

Please nominate excellent dissertations in the area of Distributed
Computing that were successfully defended (or, in lieu of a defense,
obtained final approval) in the period January 1st, 2024, through
December 31st, 2025.

Detailed submission guidelines can be found at the bottom of the
current page and of the award page: https://www.podc.org/dissertation/
(or https://www.disc-conference.org/wp/doctoral-dissertation-award/ )



*=========================================================Award
Committee=========================================================*

Dariusz Kowalski, University of Augusta, USA.
Fabian Kuhn, University of Freiburg, Germany.
Andrea W. Richa (chair), Arizona State University, USA.
Alexander A. Schwarzmann, University of Augusta, USA.



*=========================================================Contact=========================================================*

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Andrea Richa
([email protected])



*=========================================================Nomination and
Submission=========================================================*

A one-page nomination letter must be submitted by the thesis advisor(s).
The nomination should highlight the dissertation’s contributions and
justify why the dissertation is worthy of the award.



*==================================================================Submission
Checklist==================================================================*

A nomination must include:

 1. Contact details (affiliation and email addresses) of the advisor
    and the doctoral student.
 2. A formal document from the student’s
department/institution/organization
    verifying the date that the dissertation was successfully defended
    (a scanned version is acceptable for the submission, but the original
    document might be required at a later stage of the evaluation). If
    not indicated by the document, also state the period of time the student
    was enrolled in the doctoral program.
 3. A one page justification letter.
 4. The following four lists of work (co)authored by the candidate:
     a. Publications that contain material from the thesis, detailing what
        material was taken from which part of the thesis and the parts
        that are not contained in the thesis.
     b. Publications that are cited in the thesis, but do not contain
        material that also appears in the thesis.
     c. Papers currently under review, including journal submissions of
        previously published work, that contain material from the thesis,
        what material was taken from which part of the thesis and the parts
        that are not contained in the thesis.
     d. Those parts of the thesis which are not included in the other lists.

 5. A list of awards the student received for the thesis and/or
publications
    related to the thesis.
 6. One copy of the dissertation in electronic form (preferably in pdf).
 7. A separate copy of the abstract in electronic form (either as pdf or
    plain text).



*=========================================================Review
Process=========================================================*

The committee will consist of four core members and a number of
ad-hoc members, selected as described below. The review process will
consist of two stages:

The first selection phase, carried out by the core members, will be
based on the nomination letters and publication lists. At the end of
this phase, a short list of dissertations to be considered in the
second round will be compiled.

Based on the short list, the four core members will identify experts on
the topics of the dissertations and invite them to serve as additional
(ad hoc) members of the committee. The committee should include
sufficiently many members to allow each dissertation to be reviewed
by three members without requiring any member to review more than two
dissertations.



*=========================================================Evaluation
Criteria=========================================================*

The nominated dissertations will be reviewed for technical depth and
significance of the research contributions in the area of Distributed
Computing, potential impact on theory and practice, and quality of
presentation/writing, including thoroughness of description of related
work and understandability of algorithms and proofs.




*=========================================================Award=========================================================*

- The award presentation will alternate between DISC (even years) and
   PODC (odd years).
 - The winning dissertation will receive a plaque and a monetary prize.
 - The committee reserves the right to split or decline to give the award.
 - The committee can give Honorable Mentions to up to two non-winning
   dissertations meriting special recognition (or one Honorable Mention
   in case the award is split).

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