Awards

IFIP makes a number of awards - both to members of the IFIP community for their service to IFIP, and to others for their accomplishments. Internal awards recognize the dedication of IFIP volunteers; external awards serve both to honor the recipients and make the public aware of the role IFIP plays in the international information-processing community.

Isaac L. Auerbach Award

The best known of the awards is the Isaac L. Auerbach Award, named in memory of the founder of IFIP, which is presented every other year (at the IFIP Congresses) for extraordinary support of IFIP in its mission. The recipients of this internal award are nominated by IFIP Full Member societies, and the selection is made by the IFIP Executive Board. A medallion and monetary award are conferred.

The recipients have been Prof. Calvin Gottlieb (CA) in 1994, Prof. Lubomir Iliev (BG) in 1996, Prof. Heinz Zemanek (AT) in 1998, Prof. Asbjorn Rolstadas (NO) in 2000,  Prof. Wilfried Brauer (DE) in 2002, and Prof. Dipak Khakhar (SE) in 2010.

Namur Award

Another major IFIP award, the Namur Award, is granted by the Working Group on Social Accountability (WG9.2) for an outstanding contribution to the creation of awareness of the social implications of information technology. It is presented biannually in Namur, Belgium.

Informatics Olympiad Trophy

The IFIP Technical Committee on Education (TC3) presents the IFIP Trophy to the participant with the highest score in the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). The IOI is an annual competition to foster problem-solving and programming skills and to promote international understanding and friendship among contestants from all over the world. The competition was initiated by UNESCO in 1989.

Kristian Beckman Award

IFIP TC11 on Security and Privacy Protection in Information Processing Systems (http://www.ifiptc11.org) presents the Kristian Beckman Award, named in honor of its founding chairman (http://www.ifiptc11.org/index.php?id=394).

Student Award in Learning Theory

In 1997, WG1.4 (Computational Learning Theory), in cooperation with TC1 (Foundations of Computer Science), decided to award a $500 (U.S.) prize for the best student paper from a "qualifying" country at each of the three main conferences in the area. The award is intended to assist students from economically disadvantaged countries by helping to defray travel costs to attend the conferences.

The Brian Shackel Award

The Brian Shackel Award is associated with each INTERACT Conference, usually biennial, and is to recognize the most outstanding contribution in the form of a refereed paper submitted to and delivered at the Conference. The purpose is to draw attention to the need for a comprehensive human-centered approach in the design and use of information technology in which the human and social implications have been taken into account. The Award consists of a commemorative plaque and a certificate.

The Manfred Paul Award

TC2 annually recognizes excellence in its area of software, theory are practice by means of an award made to an outstanding researcher. The award is made for a published paper, and consists of a prize of 1024 euros and a plaque or certificate. The award is named after the Manfred Paul, who was chairman of TC2 from 1977 to 1986 and the representative for Germany from 1973.

Internal Awards

In addition, IFIP has two internal awards for service to IFIP, the Silver Core Award and the Outstanding Service Award (OSA). The former is conferred on those who have served IFIP as General Assembly (GA) members, committee officers, members of IFIP Congress Program Committees, and editors of proceedings of IFIP conferences. The required length of service varies with the role. The president of IFIP may also propose individuals who have given exceptional service to IFIP. (Those readers who have entered the field of information processing in recent years may not realize that the IFIP logo represents a magnetic core <a toroidal memory device that was once the most common type of computer memory> and its wires, with a globe superimposed. The award, first established in 1974, was named after this symbol of the computer technology of that time.)

The OSA, established in 1988, is given for services rendered to IFIP by TC and WG members, on recommendation of TC chairman and approval by the Internal Awards Committee. Eligible for nomination are TC and WG members not normally eligible for the Silver Core Award.

In 1988, a plan was approved by the IFIP GA to offer a pair of IFIP awards for outstanding contributions in the field of information processing, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for this field. One would be for fundamental achievements and the other for application-oriented achievements. The awards would be made at every IFIP Congress. It was felt that a sizeable monetary award (ca. $100 000 U.S.) should accompany such an award; however, the IFIP officers at that time were unable to locate donors for an endowment for this award, and the plan was dropped. Instead, IFIP resolved to support the creation of a Nobel Prize in information processing.

TC 6 Best Paper Award

The program committees of IFIP TC6 conferences select winners from among the submitted papers. The awards, paid from TC6 funds, help increase the visibility of TC6 events.