Highlights from STOC presentation

Since there wasn’t time to go through the full CATCS Report during the STOC business meeting last week, here are a few items of note.

• The URL http://www.theorymatters.org/ (listed in the presentation) is no longer active.  For now, our blog is just https://thmatters.wordpress.com/
• Tim Roughgarden will be taking over as chair of CATCS starting in August.
• Do make use of the cstheory-jobs site to advertise or look for jobs in theoretical computer science.

And many upcoming deadlines:

• June 30, 2015: proposals for 2017 programs at the Simons Institute 
• July 21, 2015: NSF CAREER Award (for new/young faculty).  See also our repository of past CAREER proposals and other proposal-writing tips.
• Late summer: universities sent calls for nominations for Simons Investigator Awards (long-term support for individuals)
• Late summer: Simons Fellows in Math (sabbatical funding)
• Early fall: Simons Collaborations in Math & Physical Sciences. (large grants for collaborative efforts on fundamental scientific questions of major importance)
• September 10, 2015: Nominations for ACM Fellows.
• September 16, 2015: NSF Medium proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• TBD (September?): Guggenheim Fellowships
• September 24, 2015: NSF Large proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• September 30, 2015: NSF CISE Research Initiation Initiative (CRII).   For new faculty, easier to get than a CAREER award (but both can be submitted at once).  See FAQ.
• October 19, 2015: NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
• TBD (late Oct): NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
• October 31, 2015: ACM Dissertation Award
• November 1, 2015: AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships
• November 18, 2015: NSF Small proposals to Algorithmic Foundations, Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, and other programs.
• November 30, 2015: Many ACM Awards (e.g. Turing, Hopper, Kanellakis, Distinguished Service)
• Rolling or Dec 1: CCC Visioning Workshops (eg Theoretical Foundations of Social Computing 6/29-6/30)
• December 7, 2015: NSF CISE-MPS Interdisciplinary Faculty Program in Quantum Information (sabbatical support)
• December 7, 2015: NSF Exploiting Parallelism & Scalability (XPS)
• February 8, 2015: NSF Algorithms in the Field (AitF)
• TBD: Simons Award for Graduate Students in TCS
• March 1, 2016: Nominations for IEEE Fellows.
• March 9, 2016: NSF CISE Expeditions in Computing Preliminary Proposals
• TBD (April?): Symposia at 2017 AAAS Annual Meeting
• TBD (May?): NSF BIGDATA program
• Any time: DIMACS special focus proposal

Call for 2016 AAAS Symposium Proposals

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has put out a Call for Symposium Proposals for the 2016 AAAS Annual Meeting, February 11-15 in Washington DC, with a proposal deadline of April 24.  

These symposia can be a way to increase awareness and even get popular press coverage of exciting research directions in theoretical computer science. Proposing and organizing a 90 or 180-minute symposium is not much work, but organizers should also work with institutional communications offices to draw attention to the symposium before the meeting (attendance at the symposia has high variance).

They are looking for proposals that either relate to the meeting theme “Global Science Engagement” (involving things such as innovation and international scientific collaboration, food and water security, sustainable development, infectious disease and health, climate change, natural disasters, and energy) or involve “groundbreaking areas of research, new and exciting developments, or cross-cutting activities in support of science, technology, and education.”

If you are thinking of submitting a proposal, we (CATCS) are happy to help and put you in touch with people who can offer advice.

Call for Symposia at AAAS 2015 Meeting

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is soliciting proposals for symposia for its Annual Meeting from February 12-16, 2015 in San Jose, CA.  Deadline is April 25.

This is a great opportunity to get a research area exposed to a broad audience of scientists, engineers, policymakers, educators, and journalists.   CATCS is available to help with the process; let us know if you’re thinking of submitting a proposal!

AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships

U.S. Citizens with PhDs in theoretical computer science (or other fields) who have an interest in policy and/or public service should consider applying for a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship.  These provide opportunities to serve for up to 3 years working with Congress or a federal agency on science-related policymaking.  In particular, there are opportunities within the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Sciences & Engineering (CISE).

Applications are due by November 1. 

We also encourage people from the TCS community to think about proposing a session on an exciting area of research at a future AAAS Meeting.  Such a session typically would involve 3-4 speakers giving talks aimed at a general audience, and are a great way to increase the public awareness and visibility of the field.  The sessions for the February 2014 meeting are already decided, but eventually there should be an open call for proposals for the 2015 meeting.