# List of computer science awards

This list of computer science awards is an index to articles on notable awards related to computer science. It includes lists of awards by the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, other computer science and information science awards, and a list of computer science competitions.
The top computer science award is the ACM Turing Award, generally regarded as the Nobel Prize equivalent for Computer Science. Other highly regarded top computer science awards include IEEE John von Neumann Medal awarded by the IEEE Board of Directors, and the Japan Kyoto Prize for Information Science.

## Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) gives out many computer science awards, often run by one of their Special Interest Groups.
| Award | SIG | Notes |
| Alan D. Berenbaum Distinguished Service Award | SIGARCH | Important service to the computer architecture community |
| CHI Academy | SIGCHI | Advancement of the field of human-computer interaction |
| Danny Lewin Best Student Paper Award | SIGACT | Best student-authored paper in Symposium on Theory of Computing |
| Dhaka Site | ICPC | University programming competition |
| Dijkstra Prize | PODC | Co-sponsor: International Symposium on Distributed Computing. For outstanding papers on the principles of distributed computing |
| Doctoral Dissertation Award | | Best doctoral dissertations in computer science and computer engineering |
| Eckert–Mauchly Award | | Co-sponsor: IEEE Computer Society. Contributions to computer and digital systems architecture |
| Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award | SIGMOD | Innovative and highly significant contributions of enduring value to the development, understanding, or use of database systems and databases |
| Eugene L. Lawler Award | | Significant contribution to the use of information technology for humanitarian purposes |
| Gerard Salton Award | SIGIR | Significant, sustained and continuing contributions to research in information retrieval |
| Gödel Prize | SIGACT | Co-sponsor: European Association for Theoretical Computer Science. For outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science |
| Gordon Bell Prize | | Outstanding achievement in high-performance computing applications |
| Grace Murray Hopper Award | | Computer professional who makes a single, significant technical or service contribution at or before age 35 |
| Ken Kennedy Award | | Co-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society. For substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and substantial community service or mentoring contributions |
| Knuth Prize | SIGACT | Co-sponsored by IEEE Computer Society. For outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science |
| Mark Weiser Award | SIGOPS | Creativity and innovation in operating system research |
| Maurice Wilkes Award | SIGARCH | Outstanding contribution to computer architecture |
| Paris Kanellakis Award | | Specific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing |
| Penny Crane Award for Distinguished Service | SIGUCCS | Significant contributions to the Special Interest Group, and to computing in higher education |
| Prize in Computing | | Early to mid-career innovative contributions in computing |
| Programming Languages Software Award | SIGPLAN | Programming Languages Software |
| Programming Systems and Languages Paper Award | | Replaced in 1983 by the ACM Software System Award |
| SIGCOMM Award | SIGCOMM | Lifetime contribution to the field of communication networks |
| SIGUCCS Hall of Fame Award | SIGUCCS | Contributions that have had a positive impact on the ACM SIGUCCS organization |
| Software System Award | | Software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both |
| Steven A. Coons Award | SIGGRAPH | Outstanding Creative Contributions to Computer Graphics |
| Turing Award | | Contributions of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field |

## IEEE

A number of awards are given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society or the IEEE Information Theory Society.
| Award | Sponsor | Notes |
| Charles Babbage Award | IEEE Computer Society | Significant contributions in the field of parallel computing |
| Claude E. Shannon Award | IEEE Information Theory Society | Consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory |
| Computer Pioneer Award | IEEE Computer Society | Those whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry |
| Harlan D. Mills Award | IEEE Computer Society | Contributions to the theory and practice of the information sciences, [focused on] software engineering |
| Harry H. Goode Memorial Award | IEEE Computer Society | Achievements in the information processing field which are considered either a single contribution of theory, design, or technique of outstanding significance, or the accumulation of important contributions on theory or practice over an extended time period |
| Internet Award | IEEE, Nokia | Exceptional contributions to the advancement of Internet technology for network architecture, mobility and/or end-use applications |
| John von Neumann Medal | IEEE | Outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology |
| Kleene Award | IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science | Best student paper |
| Machtey Award | IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science | Best student paper |
| Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Systems Award | IEEE | Outstanding contributions to information storage systems |
| Richard W. Hamming Medal | IEEE, Qualcomm | Outstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology |
| Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award | IEEE Computer Society | Significant and innovative contributions in the field of high-performance computing |
| Sidney Fernbach Award | IEEE Computer Society | Outstanding contributions in the application of high performance computers using innovative approaches |
| Test-of-Time Award | IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science | Papers from LICS twenty years earlier that stood the "test of time" |
| W. Wallace McDowell Award | IEEE Computer Society | Outstanding recent theoretical, design, educational, practical, or other similar innovative contributions that fall within the scope of Computer Society interest |
| William C. Carter Award | IEEE Technical Committee on Fault-Tolerant Computing and IFIP Working Group on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance | Significant contribution to the field of dependable and secure computing throughout his or her PhD dissertation |

## Other computer science awards

| Country | Award | Sponsor | Notes |
| United States | ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award | Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence | Career contributions that have breadth within computer science, or that bridge computer science and other disciplines |
| Europe | Ackermann Award | European Association for Computer Science Logic | Outstanding Dissertation Award for Logic in Computer Science |
| International | Azriel Rosenfeld Award | International Conference on Computer Vision (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) | Significant contributions to the field of Computer Vision over longtime careers |
| United States | Barwise Prize | American Philosophical Association | Significant and sustained contributions to areas relevant to philosophy and computing |
| United Kingdom | BCS Lovelace Medal | British Computer Society | Individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding or advancement of computing |
| United Kingdom | Charles Babbage Premium | Institution of Electrical Engineers | Authors of an outstanding paper on the design or use of electronic computers |
| Europe | Dahl–Nygaard Prize | European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming | Senior researcher with outstanding career contributions and a younger researcher who has demonstrated great potential |
| United Kingdom | Digital Preservation Award | Digital Preservation Coalition | New initiatives in the challenging field of digital preservation |
| Europe | EATCS Award | European Association for Theoretical Computer Science | Distinguished career in theoretical computer science |
| International | Edison Award | Edison Awards | Honoring excellence in innovation |
| Europe | ERCIM Cor Baayen Award | European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics | Researcher in computer science and applied mathematics |
| United States | Erdős–Rényi Prize | Network Science Society | Outstanding early-career researcher in the field of network science |
| Germany | Heinz Billing Prize | Heinz Billing Foundation of the Max Planck Society | Those who have spent time and effort developing the hardware and software crucial for scientific advances |
| United States | Herbrand Award | Conference on Automated Deduction | Important contributions to the field of automated deduction |
| United Kingdom | IET Mountbatten Medal | Institution of Engineering and Technology and Institution of Electrical Engineers | Outstanding contribution, or contributions over a period, to the promotion of electronics or information technology and their application |
| International | IJCAI Award for Research Excellence | International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence | Researcher in artificial intelligence as a recognition of excellence of their career |
| International | IJCAI Computers and Thought Award | International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence | Outstanding young scientists in artificial intelligence |
| India | Infosys Prize | Infosys Science Foundation | Outstanding achievements of contemporary researchers and scientists across six categories, including Engineering and Computer Sciences |
| Canada | J. W. Graham Medal | University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics | Leadership and many innovative contributions made to the University of Waterloo, and to the Canadian computer industry |
| United States | Jonathan B. Postel Service Award | Internet Society | honor a person who has made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community |
| Netherlands | Kalai Prize | Game Theory Society | Outstanding articles at the interface of game theory and computer science |
| Germany | Konrad Zuse Medal | Gesellschaft für Informatik | Leading German computer scientist |
| International | Levchin Prize | International Association for Cryptologic Research | Cryptographic innovation with real-world impact |
| United Kingdom | Loebner Prize | Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour | Computer programs considered by the judges to be the most human-like |
| Europe | Microsoft Award | Royal Society, French Academy of Sciences | Scientists working in Europe who had made a major contribution to the advancement of science through the use of computational methods |
| Europe | Milner Award | Microsoft Research | (replaces Microsoft Award) Outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher |
| Europe | Nerode Prize | European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, European Symposium on Algorithms | Outstanding research in the area of multivariate algorithmics |
| Brazil | Newton Faller Award | Brazilian Computer Society | Members who have distinguished themselves throughout their lives for services to the Brazilian Computer Society |
| International | IMU Abacus Medal (Nevanlinna Prize) | International Congress of Mathematicians | Outstanding contributions in Mathematical Aspects of Information Sciences |
| United States | O'Reilly Open Source Award | O'Reilly Media | Individuals recognized for dedication, innovation, leadership and outstanding contribution to open source |
| Italy | Pirelli Internetional Award | Pirelli | Best multimedia presentations focussing on themes involving the diffusion of science and technology |
| Europe | Presburger Award | European Association for Theoretical Computer Science | Young scientist for outstanding contributions in theoretical computer science |
| Europe | Prize for Innovation in Distributed Computing | International Colloquium on Structural Information and Communication Complexity | Major contribution to understanding the relationships between information and efficiency in decentralized computing |
| United Kingdom | Roger Needham Award | British Computer Society | Distinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK-based researcher |
| International | RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics | RSA Conference | Outstanding achievements in cryptographic research defined broadly, including related mathematics |
| United States | Sloan Research Fellowship | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation | Provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars |
| International | Stevens Award | Reengineering Forum | Outstanding contributions to the literature or practice of methods for software and systems development |
| United Kingdom | Tony Kent Strix award | International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK, Royal Society of Chemistry and British Computer Society | Outstanding contribution to the field of information retrieval |
| Japan | Tsutomu Kanai Award | Hitachi | Major contributions to the state-of-the-art distributed computing systems and their applications |
| United States | Tucker Prize | Mathematical Optimization Society | Outstanding theses in the area of optimization |
| United Kingdom | Weizenbaum Award | International Society for Ethics and Information Technology | Significant contribution to the field of information and computer ethics |
| United States | White Camel award | Perl Foundation | Important contributors to the Perl Programming Language community |
| Netherlands | Van Wijngaarden Award | Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica | Mathematics and Computer Science |
| United States | J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software | Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics | Outstanding contributions in the field of numerical software |
| United States | James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing | Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics | Research in, or other contributions to, numerical analysis and scientific computing |
| International | Karen Spärck Jones Award | BCS, its Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG) and Microsoft Research | An award to commemorate the achievements of Karen Spärck Jones and her impactful research the fields of information retrieval and NLP. |

## Information science awards

| Country | Award | Sponsor | Notes |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong ICT Awards | Innovation and Technology Bureau | Information and communication technologies startup companies and solutions |
| Canada | J. W. Graham Medal | University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics | Leadership and many innovative contributions to the University of Waterloo, and to the Canadian computer industry |
| Japan | Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology | Inamori Foundation | Electronics / Biotechnology and Medical Technology / Materials Science and Engineering / Information Science |
| Chile | National Prize for Exact Sciences | Ministry of Education | E.g. nanoscience and nanotechnology |
| Ireland | O'Moore Medal | Healthcare Informatics Society | Major contribution to healthcare informatics |
| United States | Patterson-Crane Award | American Chemical Society | Contributions to chemical information |
| United States | Herman Skolnik Award | American Chemical Society | Outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science |
| International | Weizenbaum Award | International Society for Ethics and Information Technology | Individual who has made significant contributions to the field of information and computer ethics |

## Competitions

| Country | Award | Sponsor | Notes |
| Australia | Hutter Prize | Marcus Hutter | Data compression improvements on a specific 1 GB English text file |
| Canada | AI Challenge | University of Waterloo Computer Science Club | Artificial intelligence programming |
| United States | American Computer Science League | ACSL | Programming |
| United States | Arimaa Challenge | Arimaa / Omar Syed | Artificial intelligence programming (game play versus humans) |
| Sweden | CADE ATP System Competition | Association for Automated Reasoning | Fully automated theorem provers for classical logic |
| United States | World Computer-Bridge Championship | American Contract Bridge League | Contract bridge using computer software |
| United Kingdom | Cyber Centurion | Cyber Security Challenge UK | Cyber security competition for school children, |
| United States | CyberPatriot | Air Force Association | National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students |
| United States | DARPA Network Challenge | DARPA | Internet and social networking competition |
| United States | DARPA Shredder Challenge 2011 | DARPA | Competition for methods to reconstruct documents shredded by a variety of paper shredding techniques |
| Poland | Deadline24 | Tomasz Łakota and Mateusz Brzeszcz | Programming |
| United States | Halite AI Programming Competition | Two Sigma, Cornell Tech | Open-source computer programming contest |
| United States | ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge | ImageNet | Software programs compete to classify and detect objects and scenes |
| International | International Olympiad in Informatics | UNESCO and IFIP | School competition |
| United Kingdom | Loebner Prize | Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour | Computer programs considered by the judges to be the most human-like |
| United States | National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition | University of Texas at San Antonio | College-level cyber defense competition |
| United States | Netflix Prize | Netflix | Best collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for films |
| United States | Outreachy | Software Freedom Conservancy | Three-month paid internships with free and open-source software projects |
| United States | Password Hashing Competition | Jean-Philippe Aumasson | Competition to select one or more password hash functions |
| United Kingdom | Project Euler | Colin Hughes | Computational problems intended to be solved with computer programs |
| United States | SemEval | Association for Computational Linguistics SIGLEX | Evaluations of computational semantic analysis systems |
| United States | Text Retrieval Conference | National Institute of Standards and Technology, Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity | Information retrieval research areas |
| Australia | UAV Outback Challenge | Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation | Competition for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles |
| United States | University Voting Systems Competition | National Science Foundation etc. | Students design, implement, and demonstrate open-source election systems |