[agents] Call for IFAAMAS-15 Victor Lesser Distinguished Dissertation Award nominations

[Bo An]

Nominations are invited for the 2015 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-2016 (http://sis.smu.edu.sg/aamas2016).


Eligible doctoral dissertations are those defended between January 1, 2015
and December 31, 2015 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 Bo An, boan at ntu.edu.sg, 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-15 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 2015.

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-2016 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.