The 2026 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing
http://www.podc.org/dijkstra/
http://www.disc-conference.org/wp/dijkstra-prize/
Nomination deadline: January 30, 2026
The Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing is named for
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (1930-2002), a pioneer in the area of
distributed computing. His seminal works on concurrency primitives
(such as semaphores), concurrency problems (such as mutual
exclusion and deadlock), finding shortest paths in graphs,
fault-tolerance, and self-stabilization are important foundations
upon which the field of distributed computing is built.
The prize is given for outstanding papers on the principles of
distributed computing, whose significance and impact on the theory
and/or practice of distributed computing has been evident for at least
a decade. The Prize includes an award of $2000.
The Prize is sponsored jointly by the ACM Symposium on Principles
of Distributed Computing (PODC) and the EATCS Symposium on
Distributed Computing (DISC). This award is presented annually,
with the presentation taking place alternately at ACM PODC and
EATCS DISC. In 2026, it will be presented at PODC. The winners of
the award will share the cash award, and each winning author will
be presented with a plaque. An announcement of each year's prize
recipient(s) will be included in the PODC and DISC proceedings of
that year, describing the paper's lasting contributions.
Nominations and Eligibility:
Nominations by any member of the scientific community are eligible,
as long as the nominated work has had a significant impact on research
areas of interest within the theory of distributed computing
community, and as long as the year of the original publication is
at least ten years prior to the year in which the award is given.
Papers authored or co-authored by members of the Award Committee will
not be eligible for consideration. Members of the Award Committee can
nominate papers. However, they must carefully consider
nominations from within the community. Members of the Award Committee
will be especially sensitive to conflict-of-interest issues if
papers by former students or close colleagues are nominated.
(Members of the Award Committee cannot nominate such papers themselves.)
Self-nominations are not allowed.
The nomination must include a short paragraph (approximately 200 words)
summarizing the contribution of the nominated work. The nomination
may include additional material, for example, support letters, but its
total length should not exceed six pages.
Your nomination must be sent to the chair of the 2026 Award Committee,
Seth Gilbert (Dijkstra.Prize@gmail.com).
The nomination deadline is January 30, 2026.
Selection Process:
Although the Award Committee is encouraged to consult with the
distributed computing community at large, the Award Committee is
solely responsible for the selection of the winner of the award. The
prize may be shared by more than one paper. All matters relating to
the selection process that are not specified here are left to the
discretion of the Award Committee.
The list of past winners can be found at http://www.podc.org/dijkstra/
and http://www.disc-conference.org/wp/dijkstra-prize/
Award Committee for 2026:
James Aspnes, Yale University, USA
Keren Censor-Hillel, Technion, Israel
Cyril Gavoille, University of Bordeaux, France
Seth Gilbert, National University of Singapore
Andrzej Pelc, Universite du Quebec en Outaouais, Canada
Eric Ruppert, York University, Canada
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