CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award

Nominations (including supporting letters) for the 2008 ACM/SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award are due TBA .

The Mark Weiser Award was created in 2001 by ACM SIGOPS, to be given to an individual who has demonstrated creativity and innovation in operating systems research. The recipient must have begun his or her career no earlier than 20 years prior to nomination.

The award is named in honor of Mark Weiser, a computing visionary recognized for his research accomplishments during his career at Xerox PARC. ACM SIGOPS will present a $1000 prize to the recipient, in memory of Mark and his many contributions to SIGOPS and the operating systems community. The award will be given annually at SOSP and OSDI.

The selection committee will choose the recipient based on: "contributions that are highly creative, innovative, and possibly high-risk, in keeping with the visionary spirit of Mark Weiser."

Previous winners

2001: Frans Kaashoek , MIT
2002: Mendel Rosenblum , Stanford University
2003: Mike Burrows, Google
2004: Brian Bershad , University of Washington (announced 12/6/04 at OSDI 2004 )
2005: Tom Anderson , University of Washington (announced 10/25/05 at SOSP 2005 )
2006: Dawson Engler , Stanford University (announced 11/6/06 at OSDI 2006 )
2007: Peter Chen , University of Michigan (announced 10/15/07 at SOSP 2007 )

Nomination procedure

Any SIGOPS member may submit a nomination. Self-nominations are not accepted. The nominee need not be a member of SIGOPS. Members of the selection committee and SIGOPS officers are not eligible.

The nomination packet should contain:

  • A statement of up to 500 words describing the innovations and accomplishments for which the nominee is to be considered.
  • Biographical information on the candidate (e.g., a CV).
  • The names and contact information of three supporters who will write letters of recommendation for the candidate. (Please have letters emailed to the award committee chair in advance, if possible.)
  • Name and contact information for the nominator, nominator's ACM membership number, and relationship to the nominee (e.g. thesis advisor, colleague, student, etc.).

A person may be nominated more than once, but in no more than three consecutive years. (After three consecutive nominations, a person may be re-nominated following a one-year hiatus.) For all re-nominations:

  • The nomimation statement and the biographical information (CV) must be updated.
  • We recommend updating the letters of recommendation, especially if they are more than one year old.

The current members of the Mark Weiser Award committee are:

  • Mike Burrows (chair), Google
  • Kai Li, Princeton
  • Barbara Liskov, MIT

Nominations (including supporting letters) should be sent to the award committee chair by September 1, 2008, by email (m3b+weiser@google.com)

We strongly recommend that nominators contact the award committee chair before August 1, 2008, to give the committee advance information about planned nominations.