SIGMM Rising Star Award

Award Description

Since 2014, ACM SIGMM presents a “Rising Star” Award annually, recognizing a young researcher – an individual either no older than 35 or within 7 years of PhD – who has made outstanding research contributions to the field of multimedia computing, communication and applications during this early part of his or her career. Depth, impact, and novelty of the researcher’s contributions will be key criteria upon which the Rising Star award committee will evaluate the nominees. Also of particular interest are strong research contributions made independently from the nominee’s PhD advisor.

The award includes a $1000 honorarium, an award certificate of recognition, and an invitation for the recipient to present a keynote talk at a current year’s SIGMM-sponsored conference, the ACM International Conference on Multimedia (ACM Multimedia). Travel expenses to the conference will be covered by SIGMM, and a public citation for the award will be placed on the SIGMM website.

Funding

The award honorarium, the award certificate of recognition and travel expenses to the ACM International Conference on Multimedia is fully sponsored by the SIGMM budget.

Nomination Process

Nominations are solicited by Jul 28, 2025  with decision made around 30 Aug, 2025, in time to allow the above recognition and award presentation at ACM Multimedia 2025.

Please submit your nomination to the rising star award committee chair.

The nomination rules are:

  • A nominee must be either 35 years of age or younger as of December 31 of the year in which the award would be made, or at most 7 years have passed since his/her PhD degree as of December 31 of the year in which the award would be made.
  • The nominee can be any member of the scientific community.
  • The nominator must be a SIGMM member.
  • No self-nomination is allowed.
  • Nominations that do not result in an award will remain in consideration for up to two years if the candidate still meets the criteria with regard to age or PhD award (i.e. no older than 35 or within 7 years of PhD). Afterwards, a new nomination must be submitted.
  • The SIGMM elected officers as well as members of the Awards Selection Committee are not eligible.

Material to be included in the nomination:

  1. Curriculum Vitae, including publications, of nominee.
  2. A letter from the nominator (maximum two pages) documenting the nominee’s research accomplishments as well as justifying the nomination, the significance of the work, and the nominee’s role in the work.
  3. A maximum of 3 endorsement letters of recommendation from others which identify the rationale for the nomination and by what means the recommender knows of the nominee’s work.
  4. A concise statement (one sentence) of the achievement(s) for which the award is being given. This statement will appear on the award certificate and on the website.

Please submit your nomination to the award committee by email.

SIGMM Rising Star Award Committee

Previous Years Receivers