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Given by ACM SIGPLAN to recognize an individual or individuals who has made a significant and lasting contribution to
the field of programming languages. The contribution can be a single event or a life-time of achievement.
The award includes a prize of $5,000. The award is presented at SIGPLAN's
PLDI conference the following June.
Recipients
2009: Rod Burstall
Citation
"Professor Rod Burstall has made deep, seminal contributions to the design of programming languages and the field of program verification. These contributions, which many of us now take for granted, include the introduction of algebraic datatypes coupled with pattern-matching clausal function definitions as found in Hope, ML, Haskell and Coq; the generalization and use of structural induction for proving properties of programs; the fold-unfold method for deriving efficient, provably-correct programs from easy to understand prototypes; mechanisms for reasoning about pointer-based, imperative programs that directly led to the development of separation logic; proof techniques and connections to modal logic for reasoning about concurrent programs; and the use of dependent types and algebraic specifications for constructing module systems that directly influenced SML and OCaml. Through these amazing contributions and his collaborations and mentorship, he helped build one of the most important centers of programming research at Edinburgh, which was eventually institutionalized as the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science."
2008:
Barbara Liskov
Citation
"Professor Barbara
Liskov has had tremendous impact on the fields of programming languages,
operating systems, distributed systems, and information security. Much of
her early research focus was on data abstraction, modularity, and
encapsulation as typified by the CLU programming language. At the time, CLU
incorporated a number of advanced features, such as modular encapsulation of
abstract data types, bounded polymorphism, exceptions, and iterator
abstraction that had clear influence over successive languages including Ada,
Modula-3, C++, and Java. Through CLU, the related books and articles, her
work on behavioral subtyping, and her courses on programming methodology,
Professor Liskov changed the way that a generation of engineers thought
about and constructed large software systems. Professor Liskov's work on the
Argus project also brought to the fore the idea of integrating transactions
and orthogonal persistence into a programming language with an aim towards
building reliable distributed systems. More recently, her work on
information flow control helped to start a research focus on end-to-end
security using language-based mechanisms for enforcement."
2007: Niklaus Wirth
2006: Ron Cytron, Jeanne Ferrante, Barry Rosen, Mark Wegman, and Kenneth
Zadeck
2005: Erich Gamma, Richard Helm,
Ralph Johnson,
John Vlissides
2004: John Backus
2003: John
Reynolds
2002: John McCarthy
2001: Robin Milner
2000: Susan Graham
1999: Ken Kennedy
1998: Fran Allen
1997: Guy Steele
Selection Committee
The Programming
Language Achievement
Award is determined by a committee consisting of program committee chairs of
POPL, PLDI, ICFP, and OOPSLA, and a chair who is an EC member appointed by the
EC. Program chairs for conferences held in year y should decide the
award for year y+1. Program chairs for year y should also take
responsibility for publicizing the award at their conference in year y, and for
liaising with their conference if it is a likely venue for the award winner to
speak at in year y+1. They should also widely encourage the submission
of nominations. If a program chair cannot participate, a replacement may be
appointed by the steering committee for the corresponding conference. Nominations
Nominations can be submitted at any time to the
secretary of SIGPLAN. Nominations
submitted by January 5th will be considered for that year's award. A nomination for the
programming languages achievement award that is not awarded will remain for three years.
Each nomination should consist of the following items:
- Name, address, phone number, and email address of the person making the nomination (the nominator).
- Name, address, phone number, and email address of the candidate for whom
the award is recommended (the nominee).
- A short statement (200-500 words) explaining why the nominee deserves the award in question.
- Names and email addresses of 5-10 people who the nominator believes will support the nomination. The awards committee will ask some of these people for their opinions.
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