Call for Nomination
2016 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nominations are invited for the 2016 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award sponsored by IFAAMAS, the International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (http://www.ifaamas.org) and to be presented at AAMAS-2017 (http://www.aamas2017.org/).

Eligible doctoral dissertations are those defended between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016 in the area of Autonomous Agents or Multiagent Systems.

This award includes a certificate and a 1500EUR payment.

The selection of the dissertation will be based on the originality, significance, and impact of the work. Evidence of such impact include publications at highly selective conferences and journals in the field, with due importance given to the AAMAS conference series and JAAMAS. Research output that resulted primarily from the student's initiative will be considered more favorably. The selection committee will be the final arbiter in the decision process. The selection committee might decide to consult external assessors and reserves the right to not award the prize if the nominations do not meet the expected quality level.

The dissertation must be nominated by the thesis supervisor and must be supported by the following documents (the documents must be placed on a web page and only a link to this page e-mailed to Edith Elkind, elkind@cs.ox.ac.uk, on or before February 28, 2016):

1. A PDF file of the dissertation. If the dissertation is not written in English, the nomination must include a substantial manuscript in English, with the nominee as the first author, published in a journal or a prestigious conference.
2. A list of citations to published papers based primarily on this dissertation with links to corresponding PDF files.
3. A recommendation from the dissertation supervisor, on departmental letterhead, nominating the dissertation for the IFAAMAS-16 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award. The recommendation should argue the merit of the dissertation and highlight, where relevant, how the work resulted from the initiative of the student. This document, not to exceed 500 words, should also certify the eligibility of the PhD by asserting that the PhD was defended in calendar year 2016.
4. The names, email addresses, and affiliations of at most three referees, familiar with the research of the candidate and experts in the pertinent research area, who will directly email their recommendations for the candidate to the chair of the selection committee. It is the responsibility of the dissertation supervisor to contact the referees and ensure that the letters are submitted by the deadline. A reference letter should be no more than 500 words in length and should be on official letterhead, signed and emailed as scanned PDF file.

NOTE: IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE DISSERTATION SUPERVISOR TO CONTACT THE REFEREES AND ENSURE THAT LETTERS (max 500 words, signed, and on letterhead) ARE SUBMITTED BY THE DEADLINE.

Though the nomination is to be submitted by the nominee's dissertation supervisor, it is required that the nominee has consented that the dissertation be considered for this award and, if selected for the award, commits to attend the AAMAS-2017 conference, where he/she will receive the award, and will give an hour-long presentation in a special session of the conference on the work contained in the dissertation. The cost of attending the conference is not covered by the award.