About the Award

This award is open to students studying anywhere in the world who have completed a PhD dissertation with HPC as a central research theme. In this case, HPC refers to the study or application of computational capabilities delivering much higher performance or larger scales than could be accomplished with a desktop or simple server system in order to solve large problems. 

To qualify for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, the dissertation must:

• Have been successfully defended (or accepted by the committee if no defense is required) during the calendar year 

• Be submitted in the final form that was accepted by the department

• Be submitted in English

The award is presented during the annual SC conference. The awardee is recognized with a $2,000 cash prize, a plaque, and travel support to SC.

How to Nominate

Current Deadlines & Nomination Form

Nominations open: March 15, 2024

Nominations close: April 26, 2024

Winners announced: August 2024

Nominators can begin the process at the online nomination form. 

Nomination Guidelines

To be considered for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, a nomination must meet the following requirements for eligibility:

• The candidate's PhD dissertation must

  • Have HPC as a central theme of the research (see below).

  • Have been successfully defended (or accepted by the committee if no defense is required) during the previous calendar year.

  • Be submitted in the final form that was accepted by the department.

  • Be submitted in English.

• The nominator must 

  • Be (or have been) the candidate’s advisor or a member of his/her dissertation committee.

  • Have coordinated with the head of the academic department that granted (or will grant) the student's degree to ensure only one dissertation from the department granting the degree to the student is being nominated.

  • Complete the online nomination form.

• The candidate must provide a current curriculum vitae and copy of their dissertation, along with some basic information on the candidate online form. The URL for this form is provided to the nominator, who will then provide it to the candidate.

• The nominator, candidate, and endorser(s) must each submit their required materials prior to the deadline. By ACM policy no extensions will be made for any reason.

For this award, HPC refers to the study or application of computational capabilities delivering much higher performance or larger scales than could be accomplished with a desktop or simple server system  in order to solve large problems. Examples include: libraries or languages to support parallelism; software tools for HPC environments; techniques or systems to support large-scale computation (including high-performance networks, computers, and data management systems); techniques or systems for large-scale visualization or analytics; tools for improving the performance of HPC systems; techniques or tools to manage HPC workloads.

Nominations will be evaluated on technical depth, the significance of the research contribution, the potential impact on theory and practice, and overall quality of work.

In accordance with ACM policies on conflict-of-interest, the following are ineligible to serve as nominators or endorsers:  

• officers of ACM

• members of the selection committee for this award.

Don't forget to read the FAQs for helpful information. 

What the Nominator Provides

The nominator must complete the online form, providing basic information and a statement addressing why the candidate's dissertation should be recognized with this award, and how it fits into the field of HPC. The nominator will also provide a suggested citation should the nomination be accepted. 

Once the nominator has submitted the appropriate information, they will be directed to contact the candidate and provide them with the URL to the candidate information form shown upon successful completion of the nomination form. It is the nominator's responsibility to provide this information to the candidate; there is no automated system. 

Nominators can begin the process at the current online form..

What the Candidate Provides

The candidate will complete the form at the URL provided to them by the nominator. Candidates may not self nominate, and they must get this URL from their nominator. As part of completing this form the candidate will be asked to upload (a) a curriculum vitae, and (b) the dissertation itself. Only PDF files will be accepted. 

Once the candidate has submitted the appropriate information, they will be directed to contact their endorser(s) and ask them to email their endorsement(s) (PDF files preferred) to dissertation@sighpc.org. The candidate is responsible for making this contact themselves and following up with endorser(s) to ensure they submit before the deadline; there is no automated system. Applications must have a minimum of one endorsement, and may have up to three (3) endorsements.

What the Endorser Provides

Each endorser (minimum of 1, maximum of 3) provides basic information indicating how they know the candidate and expressing what they find to be the impact and relevance of the candidate’s dissertation work. Endorsements are limited to a maximum of one page each, and may be emailed to the committee at dissertation@sighpc.org. PDF files are preferred.