Avi wins the Turing, TCS for all

Avi Wigderson has won the Turing award. I just can’t find the words on how happy this makes me, so won’t even try to write a post, beyond what I wrote on Twitter. Many have posted on Avi’s contributions, see Quanta, New Scientist, Scott’s blog, Lance’s blog, but to me, perhaps this tweet of Michal Feldman resonated the most. One of the first lessons I learned from Avi is one that I still remember. This was at the IAS, I think when I was visiting there in 2001. We were talking about a technical question, and I mentioned that an upcoming visitor is an expert on that topic, and so it might be good to collaborate. Avi said, “Yes, and he’s a great person, which is even more important”. With the passage of time, I realized how right Avi was in these priorities. And of course, Avi himself is the proof that being an amazing human and friend only helps in becoming a great scientist.

In the spirit of the humanity of science, let me relay the announcement of the workshop “TCS for all”, sent to me by Elena Grigorescu:

You are cordially invited to our TCS for All Spotlight Workshop! The workshop will be held as part of the 56th Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC), in Vancouver, Canada! The workshop is open to all.

More information about the workshop is available here: https://sigact.org/tcsforall/. In particular, we would like to highlight the TCS for All Travel Scholarships (deadline April 28th) and a call for nominations for Rising Stars talks at the workshop (deadline April 28th).  More information on those are below.

Hope to see you in Vancouver!

TCS for All Travel Scholarship:

TCS for All Travel Scholarships are intended for researchers at the beginning of their career. This scholarship is being made available for minorities in TCS, and anyone who identifies as such is welcome to apply; this scholarship is open to both US and international students. Preference will be given to students at the beginning of their studies. If we have sufficient funding, we will give awards to more senior students and possibly even postdocs.

To apply, you will need to fill out the following form by April 28th, 2024 (11:59 pm PDT) in which you provide basic information about yourself, an estimate of your expenses, and a brief statement:

Apply for a travel grant here.

In addition, you will need to have your advisor (or department head or other faculty mentor if you do not yet have an advisor) send a letter of support to tcswomen@gmail.com by April 28th. Your advisor’s letter should also describe the availability of other travel funds.  Note for advisors: Specifics about alternative funding are very helpful.  Statements like “funding is tight” are not very helpful. This letter should be sent with subject line “support letter for [your name]”. This is very important. Your application is not complete without this letter.

Late applications (after April 28th) will not be accepted. You will be notified about your status by May 5th, which is prior to the STOC early registration deadline and hotel cut-off deadline.

Notes: Receipts will be required for all travel awards, and reimbursements will be made after the conference. Food or visa expenses will not be reimbursed.

Nominations for Rising Star talks:

We invite nomination for speakers in our Rising Star talks at the TCS for All Spotlight Workshop at STOC 2024. To be eligible, your nominee has to be a senior PhD student with expected graduation no later than August 2025, or a postdoc in theoretical computer science (all topics represented at STOC are welcome), an underrepresented minority, and not a speaker at a previous TCS Women/TCS for All Spotlight Workshop.  Preference will be given to speakers who are currently on the job market for postdoctoral/faculty positions, or who expect to be on the job market in Fall 2024.

You can make your nomination by filling this form by April 28^th.