{"id":38,"date":"2025-10-20T15:06:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T15:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podc.org\/podc2026\/?page_id=38"},"modified":"2026-01-10T20:19:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T20:19:02","slug":"dissertation-award-nominations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.podc.org\/podc2026\/dissertation-award-nominations\/","title":{"rendered":"Dissertation Award nominations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Principles of Distributed Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award<\/a>
awarded jointly by
ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing
<\/a>EATCS Symposium on Distributed Computing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call for nominations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Submission Guidelines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Award Committee<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dariusz Kowalski, University of Augusta, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fabian Kuhn, University of Freiburg, Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea W. Richa (chair), Arizona State University, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander A. Schwarzmann, University of Augusta, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

All questions about submissions should be emailed to Andrea Richa (aricha@asu.edu<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nomination and Submission<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A one-page nomination letter must be submitted by the thesis advisor(s).  The nomination should highlight the dissertation\u2019s contributions and justify why the dissertation is worthy of the award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Submission Checklist<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A nomination must include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 1. Contact details (affiliation and email addresses) of the advisor and the doctoral student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 2. A formal document from the student\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 3. A one page justification letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 4. The following four lists of work (co)authored by the candidate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     b. Publications that are cited in the thesis, but do not contain material that also appears in the thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     d. Those parts of the thesis which are not included in the other lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 5. A list of awards the student received for the thesis and\/or publications     related to the thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 6. One copy of the dissertation in electronic form (preferably in pdf).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 7. A separate copy of the abstract in electronic form (either as pdf or plain text).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Review Process<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evaluation Criteria<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n