Doctoral Dissertation Award Nominations

The doctoral dissertation award was created by SIGCOMM in 2011, and will recognize excellent thesis research by doctoral candidates in the field of computer networking and data communication. The SIGCOMM Doctoral Dissertation Award winner and up to two runners-up will be recognized at the ACM SIGCOMM conference. The award winner will receive a plaque, a $1,500 honorarium and a complimentary registration to the year’s ACM SIGCOMM Conference.  The runners-up each will receive a plaque and a complimentary registration to the conference.

Eligibility
Nominations are limited to one doctoral dissertation per department.
The final dissertation defense should take place at the nominee’s host institution during the 12 months before the submission deadline (see below).

All submissions must be uploaded via the online submission form, which will be available one month before the nomination deadline. Submissions must be completed by December 1 of each year. Each submitted doctoral dissertation must be on a topic related to computer networking and data communication. The determination of whether a thesis is in scope for the award will be made by the Award Committee. Each nominated dissertation must also have been successfully defended by the candidate, and the final version of each nominated dissertation must have been accepted by the candidate's academic unit. An English-language version of the dissertation must be submitted with the nomination. A dissertation can be nominated for both the SIGCOMM Doctoral Dissertation Award and the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award.

 For any questions, please contact sigcomm-awards@sigcomm.org.

Submission Deadline
December 1st

Decision Deadline
The Award Committee will inform the SIGCOMM Chair and the winner and runners-up of the results by May of the following year.

Submission Procedure
All nomination materials must be submitted via the online form. Late submissions will not be considered.
Nominations for the award must include:
1. A statement summarizing the candidate’s PhD thesis contributions and potential impact, and justification of the nomination (no more than two pages);
2. The PhD thesis itself;
3. An endorsement letter by the department chair;
4. Up to three endorsement letters (in addition to the nomination) supporting the nomination including the significant PhD thesis contributions of the candidate. Each endorsement should be no longer than 500 words with clear specification of the nominee’s PhD thesis contributions and potential impact on the computer networking  field;
5. A concise statement (one sentence) of the PhD thesis contribution for which the award is being given. This statement will appear on the plaque and on the SIGCOMM website.
The nomination rules are:
1. The nominee must be a SIGCOMM member.
2. No self-nomination is allowed.
3. Each nominated dissertation must have been accepted (successfully defended) by the department within a 12-month period prior to the submission deadline.

Award Selection Committee
The Award Selection Committee will consist of three SIGCOMM members, one of whom will be appointed as the Selection Committee chair. Award committee members will be appointed by the current SIGCOMM awards chair. The committee chair will adjudicate conflicts of interest, appointing substitutes to the committee as necessary.

Resolution of Conflict of Interest
A member of the award selection committee who has a potential conflict of interest should report it to the committee chair, and the committee chair will determine whether a conflict exists. If the conflict exists, the committee chair and the SIGCOMM awards chair will replace the member of the award selection committee with another volunteer.
A potential conflict of interest occurs when a person is involved in making a decision that:

• could result in that person, a close associate of that person, or that person's company or institution receiving significant financial gain, such as a contract or grant, or

• could result in that person, or a close associate of that person, receiving significant professional recognition, such as an award or the selection of a paper, work, exhibit, or other type of submitted presentation.

Some examples of instances of associations that could cause a conflict of interest are:

• employment at the same institution or company

• candidate for employment at the same institution or company

• received an honorarium or stipend from the institution or company within the last year

• co-author on book or paper in the last 48 months

• co-principal investigator on grant or research project

• actively working on project together

• family relationship

• close personal relationship

• graduate advisee/advisor relationship

• deep personal animosity