The SIGEVO Outstanding Contribution Award will recognize truly distinctive contributions to the field of Evolutionary Computation (EC) when evaluated over an extended period of at least 15 years.

These contributions can include technical innovations, publications, leadership, teaching, mentoring, and service to the Evolutionary Computation community. An individual's contributions may fall in one or more of the following areas:

  1. Service via elected or appointed offices in SIGEVO and/or other EC societies.
  2. Editorial responsibilities for EC publications, such as editorial board member, series editor, area editor, associate editor, or editor-in-chief.
  3. Conference management responsibilities for EC related conferences, including program chair, proceedings editor, general chair, or organizing committee member.
  4. Technical contributions through scholarly publications appearing in archival journals, conference proceedings, books or monographs that have had an impact on producing new knowledge or improving the practice of EC.
  5. Significant contributions in EC education, including teaching, advancing and spreading EC subjects and/or the development of students who have made notable contributions in their own right.

Contributions benefiting SIGEVO are weighted more heavily than those benefiting other elements of ACM. In turn contributions to elements of ACM are weighted more heavily than those benefiting non-ACM organizations.

The SIGEVO Outstanding Contribution Award will be given annually to a maximum of 2 individuals (except in the first year). The award presentation will take place at the annual GECCO awards ceremony. Each award will carry a monetary value of $1,000 and a plaque contributed by SIGEVO to be awarded to each awardee.

Nominations are due February 1 of each year. Further information can be found on the Call for Nominations page.

SIGEVO Outstanding Contribution Award 2023 (first year)

Thomas Baeck
Wolfgang Banzhaf
Erick Cantu-Paz
Carlos Coello Coello
Lawrence "David" Davis
Kalyanmoy Deb
Kenneth De Jong
Stephanie Forrest
David E. Goldberg
Erik D. Goodman
Emma Hart
John Koza
William Langdon
Una-May O'Reilly
Riccardo Poli
Marc Schoenauer
Hans-Paul Schwefel
Lee Spector
Darrell Whitley

SIGEVO Outstanding Contribution Award 2024 (tbd)