The EuroSys Roger Needham PhD award is an anual prize awarded to a PhD student from a European University whose thesis is regarded to be an exceptional, innovative contribution to knowledge in the systems area. “Systems” is interpreted broadly, and includes operating systems, distributed systems, real-time systems, transactional and database systems, language runtimes, embedded systems, computer networks, systems aspects of programming, systems security, etc. The winner will receive 2000 €, which will be awarded at the EuroSys conference. The prize is donated by Microsoft Research Cambridge.

Criteria for selection are the overall contribution to systems research in terms of scientific originality, scientific significance, scientific rigor, quality of the presentation and potential for practical application.

Nominations for the 2017 award — for students who have defended their PhD thesis after September 1, 2015 — are open. The deadline for nominations is December 1, 2016. By this date the student must have defended the dissertation that will be submitted.

Nominations can only be made by a student’s PhD supervisor. A nomination must include:

• The title and abstract of the dissertation;
• a copy of the dissertation itself (PDF);
• a (1 page) recommendation letter from the submitter (PDF);
• the name of the institution and the date of the defence.

It may optionally include a PDF file containing supporting publications (mandatory if the dissertation is not written in English).

Nominations can be mailed to Paulo Verissimo (paulo.verissimo@uni.lu). Make sure the words Needham Award are in the subject line. You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt (try again if you don’t).