2021 ACM-SIGACT Distinguished Service Award
Paul Beame

The 2021 SIGACT Distinguished Service Award is presented to Paul Beame for over 20 years of dedicated and effective support of the mission of the Theoretical Computer Science community. Paul’s tireless service, in both official and unofficial roles, has been highly instrumental in ensuring the smooth running and continued vitality of the flagship STOC and FOCS conferences and of SIGACT itself.

Among Paul’s many concrete contributions are the following:

• Service as general chair, local organizer or finance chair for numerous STOC and FOCS conferences, and as (official or unofficial) advisor for numerous PC chairs.
• Service on the SIGACT Executive Committee and as SIGACT Chair, as Vice-Chair and Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Mathematical Foundations (TCMF), and as a SIG Board representative on the ACM Council.
• Successfully lobbying (as SIGACT Chair and ACM Council member) for the key 2015 ACM policy change that keeps SIGACT conference proceedings, and those of many other ACM SIGs, available via open access in perpetuity, and similarly making the FOCS Proceedings accessible via open access on the conference website.
• Introduction (again as SIGACT Chair) of the STOC TheoryFest, including co-planning and co-organization of the first two TheoryFests in 2017 and 2018.

Paul’s influence on the STOC and FOCS conferences has been profound: indeed, he has been instrumental in running one or both of these events every year since the mid-2000s. His contributions run the gamut from the big picture (such as promoting and enabling the revitalization of the STOC conference through the introduction of TheoryFest) to the exquisitely detailed (such as fine-tuning budgets and local arrangements).

In addition to his many official roles, Paul’s influence is also felt, equally significantly, through his unofficial roles as “SIGACT oracle” and advisor to those responsible for running our main conferences every year, from PC chairs to local organizers to finance chairs. Whereas many people who have served in leadership roles view stepping down as a chance to leave obligations behind, Paul has repeatedly viewed it as an opportunity to smooth the path for future incumbents.

With this Award, SIGACT recognizes Paul Beame's selfless devotion to the TCS mission over two decades.

Award Committee:

• Alistair Sinclair (UC Berkeley, Chair)
• Rebecca Wright (Barnard College)
• Dieter van Melkebeek (UW-Madison)

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Last updated 2021-04-30