SIGPLAN Awards


SIGPLAN bestows the following awards on an annual basis to recognize service and achievements in the programming language community. Details about the nomination process for a particular award can be found on the specific award web page.

See SIGPLAN’s statement about the 2020 ACM Turing Award.


Programming Languages Achievement Award
The Programming Languages Achievement Award is 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.

Distinguished Service Award
The Distinguished Service Award is given by ACM SIGPLAN to recognize the value and degree of services to the Programming Languages Community. The award recognizes contributions to ACM SIGPLAN, its conferences, publications, or its local activities. The award includes a prize of $2,500.

Distinguished Educator Award
The Distinguished Educator Award is given by ACM SIGPLAN to recognize pedagogical contributions to Programming Languages at any educational level. The award recognizes contributions in both innovative content and delivery. The award includes a prize of $2,500.

Programming Languages Software Award
The Programming Languages Software Award is awarded to an institution or individual(s) to recognize the development a software system that has had a significant impact on programming language research, implementations, and tools. The impact may be reflected in the wide-spread adoption of the system or its underlying concepts by the wider programming language community either in research projects, in the open-source community, or commercially. The award includes a prize of $2,500.

Robin Milner Young Researcher Award
The Robin Milner Young Researcher Award is given by ACM SIGPLAN to recognize outstanding contributions by young investigators in the area of programming languages. Individuals are eligible if their computer-related professional career (graduate school or full-time employment, whichever began first) started no earlier than 20 years prior to the nominations deadline. The award includes a prize of $2,500.

John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award
The John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award is presented annually to the author of the outstanding doctoral dissertation in the area of Programming Languages.

Most Influential Paper Awards
SIGPLAN presents these awards to the author(s) of a paper presented at the POPL, PLDI, ICFP, and OOPSLA held 10 years prior to the award year. The award includes a prize of $1,000 to be split among the authors of the winning paper. The papers are judged by their influence over the past decade. Each award is presented at the respective conference.

ACM Fellows
The programming language community has many members who are ACM Fellows.