Prize Specifications

Principal Guideline

The SIAG/CST Best SICON Paper Prize was established by the SIAM Activity Group in Control and Systems Theory (SIAG/CST) in 2007. The prize is awarded to the author(s) of the two most outstanding papers, as determined by the prize committee, published in the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization (SICON) in the three calendar years before the award year. Both papers may be from the same year.

Prize Committee

Formation

The prize committee will consist of five members of the SIAG/CST. The SIAG Chair, in consultation with the other officers and with the Editor-in-Chief of SICON, will form a list of people to serve on the committee and will submit the list to the SIAM Vice President at Large (SIAM VP) for approval prior to inviting the committee members to serve. They will seek to ensure a diverse composition of the prize committee in research area, geography, employment sector (industry, national laboratories, universities), and under-represented groups. The appointments will be made at least twelve months in advance of the prize award date.

Tenure

The term of office of the prize committee will be from the date of appointment until the date of the prize award.

Rules of Operation

The SIAG/CST officers and the SIAM office will solicit nominations for the prize from the general membership of the SIAG/CST and from other members of the scientific community, using SIAM office resources as needed. Editors of SICON and officers of the SIAG are not eligible for an award until one year after their term of office expires. Prize committee members are also not eligible.

The prize committee will follow the ‘best practices’ set out in the SIAM document for Selection Committees. The prize committee will follow the SIAM rules for conflict of interest as posted on the SIAM web site.

Selection Procedures

Eligibility

A candidate paper must make significant research contributions to the field of control and systems theory and must have been published in SICON in one of the two calendar years preceding the year of the award.

Recommendation of the Prize Committee

The prize committee will notify the SIAM VP of its recommendations of two winning papers at least three months prior to the award date. The recommendations must be accompanied by written justifications and citations not exceeding 25 words that can be read at award time.

The SIAM VP will accept or reject the prize committee's recommendation at least two months prior to the award date.

If the prize committee's recommendations are accepted, the award presentations will be made according to the procedure described below. If a nomination is not accepted, that award will not be given.

The Selection Committee has the authority to choose to abstain from giving the award if there is no acceptable individual. If the award is not given for this reason, a new selection committee will be selected for the next award cycle.[1]

Notification of Award

The Chair of the Prize Committee will notify the recipient(s) of the award at least two months in advance of the award date. An invitation will also be extended to the recipient(s) to attend the award ceremony to receive the award and to present the paper in a short plenary lecture, as described below.

Description of Award

Award Type

The award will consist of a plaque. If the selected paper has multiple authors, each author will receive a plaque. There will be no cash award associated with the prize.

Award Date and Period

Beginning in 2009, the prizes will be awarded every second year at the biennial SIAM Conference on Control and its Applications. The period of eligibility for an award will be the three calendar years preceding the year of the conference. If the period between SIAM Conferences on Control and its Applications is different from two years, then the period of eligibility of papers will be similarly adjusted but the number of awards will not be changed.

Obligations of the Award Recipient(s)

At least one of the awardees for each prize paper should attend the award ceremony and present the paper as a short plenary lecture at the meeting. One of the plenary lecture slots at the meeting will be reserved for these two short plenaries. As with all plenary talks, travel expenses will be available to reimburse the speaker. Should more than one author be involved in presenting the short plenary lecture, reimbursement will be made to only one author (selected by the authors).

Prize Fund

Since there is no cash award and minimal expenses are associated with the prize, there will be no prize fund.

Award Presentation

The Chair of the SIAG/CST will announce the awards at the meeting and present the awards to the recipient(s). At least one author of each paper should be present.

An announcement of the award recipient(s) and the winning article(s) will appear in SIAM News.

^[1] An award decision will also be postponed to the next cycle if the number of nominations does not meet the required number to forward to the selection committee. See SIAM Prize Policy for more information.