List of computer science awards


This list of computer science awards is an index to articles on notable awards related to computer science. It includes lists of awards by the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, other computer science and information science awards, and a list of computer science competitions.
The top computer science award is the ACM Turing Award, generally regarded as the Nobel Prize equivalent for Computer Science. Other highly regarded top computer science awards include IEEE John von Neumann Medal awarded by the IEEE Board of Directors, and the Japan Kyoto Prize for Information Science.

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery gives out many computer science awards, often run by one of their Special Interest Groups.
AwardSIGNotes
Alan D. Berenbaum Distinguished Service AwardSIGARCHImportant service to the computer architecture community
CHI AcademySIGCHIAdvancement of the field of human-computer interaction
Danny Lewin Best Student Paper AwardSIGACTBest student-authored paper in Symposium on Theory of Computing
Dhaka SiteICPCUniversity programming competition
Dijkstra PrizePODCCo-sponsor: International Symposium on Distributed Computing. For outstanding papers on the principles of distributed computing
Doctoral Dissertation AwardBest doctoral dissertations in computer science and computer engineering
Eckert–Mauchly AwardCo-sponsor: IEEE Computer Society. Contributions to computer and digital systems architecture
Edgar F. Codd Innovations AwardSIGMODInnovative and highly significant contributions of enduring value to the development, understanding, or use of database systems and databases
Eugene L. Lawler AwardSignificant contribution to the use of information technology for humanitarian purposes
Gerard Salton AwardSIGIRSignificant, sustained and continuing contributions to research in information retrieval
Gödel PrizeSIGACTCo-sponsor: European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. For outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science
Gordon Bell PrizeOutstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications
Grace Murray Hopper AwardComputer professional who makes a single, significant technical or service contribution at or before age 35
Ken Kennedy AwardCo-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society. For substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and substantial community service or mentoring contributions
Knuth PrizeSIGACTCo-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society. For outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science
Mark Weiser AwardSIGOPSCreativity and innovation in operating system research
Maurice Wilkes AwardSIGARCHOutstanding contribution to computer architecture
Paris Kanellakis AwardSpecific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing
Penny Crane Award for Distinguished ServiceSIGUCCSSignificant contributions to the Special Interest Group, and to computing in higher education
Prize in ComputingEarly to mid-career innovative contributions in computing
Programming Languages Software AwardSIGPLANProgramming Languages Software
SIGCOMM AwardSIGCOMMLifetime contribution to the field of communication networks
SIGUCCS Hall of Fame AwardSIGUCCSContributions that have had a positive impact on the ACM SIGUCCS organization
Software System AwardSoftware system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both
Turing AwardContributions of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field

IEEE

A number of awards are given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the IEEE Computer Society or the IEEE Information Theory Society.
AwardSponsorNotes
Claude E. Shannon AwardIEEE Information Theory SocietyConsistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory
Computer Pioneer AwardIEEE Computer SocietyThose whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry
Harlan D. Mills AwardIEEE Computer SocietyContributions to the theory and practice of the information sciences, software engineering
Harry H. Goode Memorial AwardIEEE Computer Society Achievements in the information processing field which are considered either a single contribution of theory, design, or technique of outstanding significance, or the accumulation of important contributions on theory or practice over an extended time period
Internet AwardIEEE, NokiaExceptional contributions to the advancement of Internet technology for network architecture, mobility and/or end-use applications
John von Neumann MedalIEEEOutstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology
Kleene awardIEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer ScienceBest student paper
Machtey AwardIEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer ScienceBest student paper
Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems AwardIEEEOutstanding contributions to information storage systems
Richard W. Hamming MedalIEEE, QualcommOutstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology
Seymour Cray Computer Engineering AwardIEEE Computer SocietySignificant and innovative contributions in the field of high-performance computing
Sidney Fernbach AwardIEEE Computer SocietyOutstanding contributions in the application of high performance computers using innovative approaches
Test-of-Time awardIEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer SciencePapers from LICS twenty years earlier that stood the "test of time"
W. Wallace McDowell AwardIEEE Computer SocietyOutstanding recent theoretical, design, educational, practical, or other similar innovative contributions that fall within the scope of Computer Society interest
William C. Carter AwardIEEE Technical Committee on Fault-Tolerant Computing and IFIP Working Group on Dependable Computing and Fault ToleranceSignificant contribution to the field of dependable and secure computing throughout his or her PhD dissertation

Other computer science awards

CountryAwardSponsorNotes
United StatesACM-AAAI Allen Newell AwardAssociation for the Advancement of Artificial IntelligenceCareer contributions that have breadth within computer science, or that bridge computer science and other disciplines
InternationalAzriel Rosenfeld AwardInternational Conference on Computer Vision Significant contributions to the field of Computer Vision over longtime careers
United StatesBarwise PrizeAmerican Philosophical AssociationSignificant and sustained contributions to areas relevant to philosophy and computing
United KingdomBCS Lovelace MedalBritish Computer SocietyIndividuals who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding or advancement of computing
United KingdomCharles Babbage PremiumInstitution of Electrical EngineersAuthors of an outstanding paper on the design or use of electronic computers
EuropeDahl–Nygaard PrizeEuropean Conference on Object-Oriented ProgrammingSenior researcher with outstanding career contributions and a younger researcher who has demonstrated great potential
United KingdomDigital Preservation AwardDigital Preservation CoalitionNew initiatives in the challenging field of digital preservation
EuropeEATCS AwardEuropean Association for Theoretical Computer ScienceDistinguished career in theoretical computer science
InternationalEdison AwardEdison AwardsHonoring excellence in innovation
EuropeERCIM Cor Baayen AwardEuropean Research Consortium for Informatics and MathematicsResearcher in computer science and applied mathematics
United StatesErdős–Rényi PrizeNetwork Science SocietyOutstanding early-career researcher in the field of network science
GermanyHeinz Billing PrizeHeinz Billing Foundation of the Max Planck SocietyThose who have spent time and effort developing the hardware and software crucial for scientific advances
United StatesHerbrand AwardConference on Automated DeductionImportant contributions to the field of automated deduction
United KingdomIET Mountbatten MedalInstitution of Engineering and Technology and Institution of Electrical EngineersOutstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application
InternationalIJCAI Award for Research ExcellenceInternational Joint Conference on Artificial IntelligenceResearcher in artificial intelligence as a recognition of excellence of their career
InternationalIJCAI Computers and Thought AwardInternational Joint Conference on Artificial IntelligenceOutstanding young scientists in artificial intelligence
CanadaJ. W. Graham MedalUniversity of Waterloo Faculty of MathematicsLeadership and many innovative contributions made to the University of Waterloo, and to the Canadian computer industry
United StatesJonathan B. Postel Service AwardInternet Societyhonor a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community
NetherlandsKalai PrizeGame Theory SocietyOutstanding articles at the interface of game theory and computer science
GermanyKonrad Zuse MedalGesellschaft für InformatikLeading German computer scientist
United KingdomLoebner PrizeSociety for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of BehaviourComputer programs considered by the judges to be the most human-like
EuropeMicrosoft AwardRoyal Society, French Academy of SciencesScientists working in Europe who had made a major contribution to the advancement of science through the use of computational methods
EuropeMilner AwardMicrosoft Research Outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher
EuropeNerode PrizeEuropean Association for Theoretical Computer Science, European Symposium on AlgorithmsOutstanding research in the area of multivariate algorithmics
BrazilNewton Faller AwardBrazilian Computer SocietyMembers who have distinguished themselves throughout their lives for services to the Brazilian Computer Society
InternationalNevanlinna PrizeInternational Congress of MathematiciansOutstanding contributions in Mathematical Aspects of Information Sciences
United StatesO'Reilly Open Source AwardO'Reilly MediaIndividuals recognized for dedication, innovation, leadership and outstanding contribution to open source
ItalyPirelli Internetional AwardPirelliBest multimedia presentations focussing on themes involving the diffusion of science and technology
EuropePresburger AwardEuropean Association for Theoretical Computer ScienceYoung scientist for outstanding contributions in theoretical computer science
EuropePrize for Innovation in Distributed ComputingInternational Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication ComplexityMajor contribution to understanding the relationships between information and efficiency in decentralized computing
United KingdomRoger Needham AwardBritish Computer SocietyDistinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK-based researcher
InternationalRSA Award for Excellence in MathematicsRSA ConferenceOutstanding achievements in cryptographic research defined broadly
United StatesSloan Research FellowshipAlfred P. Sloan FoundationProvide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars
InternationalStevens AwardReengineering ForumOutstanding contributions to the literature or practice of methods for software and systems development
United KingdomTony Kent Strix awardInternational Society for Knowledge Organisation UK, Royal Society of Chemistry and British Computer SocietyOutstanding contribution to the field of information retrieval
JapanTsutomu Kanai AwardHitachiMajor contributions to the state-of-the-art distributed computing systems and their applications
United StatesTucker PrizeMathematical Optimization SocietyOutstanding theses in the area of optimization
United KingdomWeizenbaum AwardInternational Society for Ethics and Information TechnologySignificant contribution to the field of information and computer ethics
United StatesWhite Camel awardPerl FoundationImportant contributors to the Perl Programming Language community
NetherlandsVan Wijngaarden AwardCentrum Wiskunde & InformaticaMathematics and Computer Science
United StatesJ. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical SoftwareSociety for Industrial and Applied MathematicsOutstanding contributions in the field of numerical software
United StatesJames H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific ComputingSociety for Industrial and Applied MathematicsResearch in, or other contributions to, numerical analysis and scientific computing
InternationalKaren Spärck Jones AwardBCS, its Information Retrieval Specialist Group and Microsoft ResearchAn award to commemorate the achievements of Karen Spärck Jones and her impactful research the fields of information retrieval and NLP.

Information science awards

CountryAwardSponsorNotes
Hong KongHong Kong ICT AwardsInnovation and Technology BureauInformation and communication technologies startup companies and solutions
CanadaJ. W. Graham MedalUniversity of Waterloo Faculty of MathematicsLeadership and many innovative contributions to the University of Waterloo, and to the Canadian computer industry
JapanKyoto Prize in Advanced TechnologyInamori FoundationElectronics / Biotechnology and Medical Technology / Materials Science and Engineering / Information Science
ChileNational Prize for Exact SciencesMinistry of EducationE.g. nanoscience and nanotechnology
IrelandO'Moore MedalHealthcare Informatics SocietyMajor contribution to healthcare informatics
United StatesPatterson-Crane AwardAmerican Chemical SocietyContributions to chemical information
United StatesHerman Skolnik AwardAmerican Chemical SocietyOutstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science
InternationalWeizenbaum AwardInternational Society for Ethics and Information TechnologyIndividual who has made significant contributions to the field of information and computer ethics

Competitions

CountryAwardSponsorNotes
AustraliaHutter PrizeMarcus HutterData compression improvements on a specific 1 GB English text file
CanadaAI ChallengeUniversity of Waterloo Computer Science ClubArtificial intelligence programming
United StatesAmerican Computer Science LeagueACSLProgramming
United StatesArimaa ChallengeArimaa / Omar SyedArtificial intelligence programming
SwedenCADE ATP System CompetitionAssociation for Automated ReasoningFully automated theorem provers for classical logic
United StatesWorld Computer-Bridge ChampionshipAmerican Contract Bridge LeagueContract bridge using computer software
United KingdomCyber CenturionCyber Security Challenge UKCyber security competition for school children,
United StatesCyberPatriotAir Force AssociationNational Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students
United StatesDARPA Network ChallengeDARPAInternet and social networking competition
United StatesDARPA Shredder Challenge 2011DARPACompetition for methods to reconstruct documents shredded by a variety of paper shredding techniques
PolandDeadline24Tomasz Łakota and Mateusz BrzeszczProgramming
United StatesHalite AI Programming CompetitionTwo Sigma, Cornell TechOpen-source computer programming contest
United StatesImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition ChallengeImageNetSoftware programs compete to classify and detect objects and scenes
InternationalInternational Olympiad in InformaticsUNESCO and IFIPSchool competition
United KingdomLoebner PrizeSociety for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of BehaviourComputer programs considered by the judges to be the most human-like
United StatesNational Collegiate Cyber Defense CompetitionUniversity of Texas at San AntonioCollege-level cyber defense competition
United StatesNetflix PrizeNetflixBest collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for films
United StatesOutreachySoftware Freedom ConservancyThree-month paid internships with free and open-source software projects
United StatesPassword Hashing CompetitionJean-Philippe AumassonCompetition to select one or more password hash functions
United KingdomProject Euler Colin HughesComputational problems intended to be solved with computer programs
United StatesSemEvalAssociation for Computational Linguistics SIGLEXEvaluations of computational semantic analysis systems
United StatesText Retrieval ConferenceNational Institute of Standards and Technology, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects ActivityInformation retrieval research areas
AustraliaUAV Outback ChallengeAustralian Research Centre for Aerospace AutomationCompetition for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles
United StatesUniversity Voting Systems CompetitionNational Science Foundation etc.Students design, implement, and demonstrate open-source election systems