The Mark Weiser Award

Nomination deadline: September 1, 2024

The Mark Weiser Award was created in 2001 by ACM SIGOPS, to be given to an individual who has demonstrated creativity and innovation in operating systems research, broadly construed. The recipient must have begun his or her career no earlier than 20 years prior to nomination.

The award is named in honor of Mark Weiser, a computing visionary recognized for his research accomplishments during his career at Xerox PARC. ACM SIGOPS will present a $1000 prize to the recipient, in memory of Mark and his many contributions to SIGOPS and the operating systems community. The award will be given annually at SOSP and OSDI.

The selection committee will choose the recipient based on: “contributions that are highly creative, innovative, and possibly high-risk, in keeping with the visionary spirit of Mark Weiser.”

Winners

2024: George Candea, EPFL.
2023: Matei Zaharia, University of California, Berkeley.
2022: David Andersen, CMU.
2021: Michael Freedman, Princeton University.
2020: Jason Flinn, University of Michigan.
2019: Ion Stoica, University of California, Berkeley.
2018: Andrea Arpaci-Dusseau and Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
2017: Nickolai Zeldovich, MIT.
2016: Antony “Ant” Rowstron, Microsoft Research Cambridge.
2015: Yuanyuan Zhou, University of California – San Diego.
2014: Eddie Kohler, Harvard University.
2013: Stefan Savage, University of California – San Diego.
2012: Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, Google.
2011: Miguel Castro, Microsoft Research.
2010: Robert Morris, MIT.
2009: Eric Brewer, UC Berkeley.
2008: Peter Druschel, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems
2007: Peter Chen, University of Michigan
2006: Dawson Engler, Stanford University
2005: Tom Anderson, University of Washington
2004: Brian Bershad, University of Washington
2003: Mike Burrows, Google
2002: Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford University
2001: Frans Kaashoek, MIT

Nomination Procedure

Any SIGOPS member may submit a nomination. Self-nominations are not accepted. The nominee need not be a member of SIGOPS. Members of the selection committee and SIGOPS officers are not eligible.

The nomination packet should contain:

• • A statement of up to 500 words describing the innovations and accomplishments for which the nominee is to be considered.
  • Biographical information on the candidate (e.g., a CV).
  • The names and contact information of three supporters who will write letters of recommendation for the candidate. (Please have letters emailed to the award committee chair in advance, if possible.)
  • Name and contact information for the nominator, nominator’s ACM membership number, and relationship to the nominee (e.g. thesis advisor, colleague, student, etc.).

A person may be nominated more than once but in no more than three consecutive years. (After three consecutive nominations, a person may be re-nominated following a one-year hiatus.) For all re-nominations:

• • The nomination statement and the biographical information (CV) must be updated.
  • We recommend updating the letters of recommendation, especially if they are more than one year old.

The current members of the Mark Weiser Award committee are:

• • Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau – Univ. of Wisconsin (chair)
  • Angela Demke Brown – Univ. of Toronto
  • Nickolai Zeldovich – MIT

Nominations (including supporting letters) should be sent to the award committee chair by email (MWAnominations@sigops.org).