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John C Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award nominations for 2014

Presented annually to the author of the outstanding doctoral dissertation in the area of Programming Languages. The award includes a prize of $1,000. The winner can choose to receive the award at ICFP, OOPSLA, POPL, or PLDI.

I guess it is fairly obvious why professors should propose their students (the deadline is January 4th 2015). Newly minted PhD should, for similar reasons, make sure their professors are reminded of these reasons. I can tell you that the competition is going to be tough this year; but hey, you didn't go into programming language theory thinking it is going to be easy, did you?

By Ehud Lamm at 2014-11-26 22:05 | General | other blogs | 30679 reads

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Well, some of us didn't go

Well, some of us didn't go into programming language theory :)

By Sean McDirmid at Thu, 2014-11-27 00:03 | login or register to post comments

Does the $1000 go towards

Does the $1000 go towards admission to the chosen conference?

By Matt M at Thu, 2014-11-27 01:46 | login or register to post comments

Ouch. But consider where

Ouch. But consider where money comes from for conference registration and where the nominal award is going (into someone's pocket), and the cash award actually seems reasonable.

No one goes to a conference if they have to pay for it out of their own pocket, its way too expensive :p

By Sean McDirmid at Thu, 2014-11-27 02:46 | login or register to post comments

Oh, I was intending to take

Oh, I was intending to take a jab at the conference admissions cost, not the award amount. I realize that no one who goes to these things actually pays for them out of pocket.

By Matt M at Thu, 2014-11-27 02:55 | login or register to post comments

Ya, conference registration

Ya, conference registration is definitely high. At least students get a discount; I'm not sure what else can be done (maybe a new model?).

By Sean McDirmid at Thu, 2014-11-27 05:05 | login or register to post comments

I don't know. Probably

I don't know. Probably nothing to be done unless you want to skimp on something to lower costs, but I'm not informed enough to discuss it intelligently. I'm just grumbling. :)

By Matt M at Thu, 2014-11-27 14:38 | login or register to post comments

There is some waste in the

There is some waste in the system...people need to get paid or justify getting paid. But this is true everywhere in industry and academia and not unique to our conference system. I think we should be able to get the price to around $600 (the cost of strange loop), but that wouldn't include student subsidies. After that it is still a pretty high price.

The best strategy is to do only one conference a year, so choose your home conference carefully :) After that, special workshops and working groups are much more enjoyable given the focus and caliber of the people involved, and their fees are usually quite reasonable (mostly just cost of some space and a few meals). Of course, anywhere I go usually requires an expensive 10+ hour plane ride...why people can't do anything in Asia is beyond me.

By Sean McDirmid at Fri, 2014-11-28 02:22 | login or register to post comments

I did

I realize that no one who goes to these things actually pays for them out of pocket.

I did last year. :)

By Andreas Rossberg at Thu, 2014-11-27 22:07 | login or register to post comments

"no one" ==> "not many". $1K

"no one" ==> "not many". $1K is a pretty steep price to pay out of pocket.

By Sean McDirmid at Fri, 2014-11-28 02:23 | login or register to post comments

Not quite 1K

It was ICFP, so not quite 1K. Actually, hotel prices in Boston were the bigger blow by far.

By Andreas Rossberg at Fri, 2014-11-28 09:33 | login or register to post comments

OOPSLA is up to $1k now if

OOPSLA is up to $1k now if you include the workshop days.

Portland is at least cheap on hotels.

By Sean McDirmid at Fri, 2014-11-28 09:50 | login or register to post comments

How about discussing

How about discussing whether/to what extent such prizes are helpful for one's career?

By Ehud Lamm at Fri, 2014-11-28 10:37 | login or register to post comments

My advisor graduated two

My advisor graduated two PhDs, one got it (hint not me). Frankly, it probably looks good on a CV but I don't see it helping your career specifically. I'm not even sure if it makes more people read your dissertation. Its like "best paper," doesn't mean it will be seminal.

By Sean McDirmid at Fri, 2014-11-28 13:14 | login or register to post comments

A weird split

The 2001-2008 winners are all professors at research universities. The 2009 winners are at MSR. The 2010-2014 winners are all in industry.

By Sam Tobin-Hochstadt at Fri, 2014-11-28 17:16 | login or register to post comments

Not quite right

Sumit Gulwani, winner in 2005, is at MSR.

By Sam Tobin-Hochstadt at Fri, 2014-11-28 17:19 | login or register to post comments

It doesn't say much; it just

It doesn't say much; it just mirrors a trend that happened in the 00s, with more PL PhDs going into industry.

By Sean McDirmid at Fri, 2014-11-28 23:23 | login or register to post comments

Conferences in Asia

Sean McDirmid wrote: ``..why people can't do anything in Asia is beyond me.''

There are some conferences in Asia. First, there is APLAS. This year it was in Singapore, a bit far away (7hr flight for me, I didn't attend). Next year however it will be in Korea, much closer for me and especially you. Then there is FLOPS, conducted every two years in Japan. Next FLOPS will be in 2016, at the end of February-beginning of March. Your research fits the scope of both these symposia, and your submissions are very welcome.

Just for reference, there are other conferences. Just last week there was LENLS 11, international linguistic conference, conducted in co-operation with an AI symposium, at Keio University in Japan.

Mainly, why don't you organize something yourself? I would love to visit China (especially nicer places than Beijing -- like Hangzhou or Suzhou) but there are very few good opportunities. Although there are quite a few very talented students who are interested in FP, there are hardly any PL faculty, and hardly any meetings on PL topics. You can change this!

By Oleg at Mon, 2014-12-01 08:41 | login or register to post comments