CATCS

In June 2005, SIGACT set up the Committee for the Advancement of Theoretical Computer Science (CATCS) to deal with funding, outreach, and advocacy issues. The mission of the CATCS is:

• To promote TCS to funding agencies, foundations, corporations, etc.; to work to create new funding opportunities.
• To help funding agencies with information or other tasks they need from the TCS community.
• To  promote TCS to and increase dialog with other research communities, including facilitating and coordinating the development of materials that educate the general scientific community and general public about TCS.

The composition of the committee changes every year.  Current members are: Boaz Barak, Erin Chambers, Shuchi Chawla, Ken Clarkson, Edith Cohen, Henry Cohn, Nicholas Harvey, Nicole Immorlica, Samir Khuller (ex officio, SIGACT chair), Ravi Kumar, Ran Libeskind-Hadas, Jelani Nelson, Alexander Russell, David Shmoys, Adam Smith, Jack Snoeyink, Chris Umans, Yusu Wang, Ryan Williams, and David Woodruff (chair).

Former committee members: Rajeev Alur, Sanjeev Arora, Paul Beame, Avrim Blum, Lenore Blum, Moses Charikar, Petros Drineas, Cynthia Dwork, Jeff Erickson, Joan Feigenbaum, Lance Fortnow, Piotr Indyk, David Johnson, Sampath Kannan, Anna Karlin, Richard Karp, Phokion Kolaitis, Richard Ladner, Richard Lipton, Michael Mitzenmacher, Ryan O’Donnell, Christos Papadimitriou, Ramamohan Paturi, Dana Randall, Tim Roughgarden, Bob Sloan, Bill Steiger, Diane Souvaine, Madhu Sudan, Eva Tardos, Luca Trevisan, Salil Vadhan, and Avi Wigderson.

General Notes:

• Taking a position at NSF or another funding agency for a few years is one of the most important ways one can serve the community. If you have suggestions or are potentially interested, send email to any of the CATCS committee members.
• The task of nominating someone for a high-profile award can be daunting, but the CATCS is available to help. If there is a nomination you want to make but the process seems overwhelming, contact us and we may be able to provide advice, connect you with people who can help, etc.

See also CATCS Reports.

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