FOCS Test of Time Awards

David Zuckerman holds an Endowed Professorship in the Texas Computer Science department.

He wrote to some of us about the 2023 FOCS Test of Time Awards. Note that we just posted about the corresponding STOC awards. The rules are the same.

A Request

David says:

Would you mind posting to encourage people to nominate papers for these awards that target FOCS papers from 1993, 2003, and 2013. Nominations are due this July 31. Details are here.

The winners will be selected by a committee appointed by the FOCS Steering Committee. For 2023 the award committee consists of Jin-Yi Cai (University of Wisconsin), Faith Ellen (University of Toronto), Leonard Schulman (Caltech), Alistair Sinclair (UC Berkeley), Éva Tardos (Cornell University), and committee chair Zuckerman.

He is asking because, as you probably know, often there are fewer nominations for these awards than one might expect. In selecting the Test of Time Award winners, the Committee will pay particular attention to long-term impact. This impact can come in many forms, including:

1. Solving a problem of lasting importance,

2. Pioneering a new area of research,

3. Introducing novel techniques.

Open Problems

Here are the previous awards—2022. The 20-year award includes a lattice-based paper by Daniele Micciancio and the 30-year award includes ALMSS and two other papers that set a big agenda for the 1990s and beyond. The initials ALMSS should be uniquely recognizable. Let’s get similar great ones for this year.

Ken and I have some ideas on what and whom to suggest. Hmmm. Let’s help the FOCS committee.