SIGIR Academy

We have established the SIGIR Academy to honor and recognize individuals who have made significant, cumulative contributions to the development of the field of information retrieval (IR).

Inductees to the SIGIR Academy are the principal leaders in IR, whose efforts have shaped the discipline and/or industry through significant research, innovation, and/or service.

Each year, a small cohort (around 3-5 new members) will be elected to the SIGIR Academy. Election is considered an official ACM award. Inductees will be celebrated at the SIGIR conference in their year of induction.

Selection Criteria
The criteria for election to the SIGIR Academy are as follows:

  • Cumulative contributions to the field,
  • Impact on the field through the development of new research directions, innovations, and/or service,
  • Influence on the work of others, and
  • Reasonably active participation in the ACM SIGIR community.

The criteria above include both significant technical contributions (scientific or industrial) and/or significant community service contributions.

Nomination Process
Potential inductees must be nominated. We welcome more than one nomination from the same nominator. Self-nominations are permitted.

Nominations must include the following:

  • Name and contact information of the nominee,
  • The nominee’s resume,
  • A brief summary (one page max, PDF) of how the nominee meets the award criteria,
  • Name and contact information of the nominator, and
  • Names and contact information of two people (other than the nominator/nominee) who are knowledgeable about the qualifications of the nominee and endorse them (nothing is required from the endorser beyond their agreement that the nominee deserves the award).

Inductees into the ACM SIGIR Academy in any given year are determined by a Selection Committee. For transparency, the list of Selection Committee members will be made public. Lobbying (even informally) of Committee members is not permitted. Members of the Selection Committee are not permitted to submit nominations or endorse nominees for the duration of their service on the Committee.

The deadline for 2025 nominations was February 28, 2025. Inductees and nominators will be notified of the outcome of their nominations by email by the end of May in the induction year. Inductees will be publicly announced shortly thereafter.

Unsuccessful nominations maybe be resubmitted from year to year. We encourage updated nominations to be submitted for all candidates to ensure the Selection Committee has the latest information.

The Selection Committee will follow the ACM Diversity and Inclusion policy (https://www.acm.org/diversity-inclusion/about).

Inquiries can be sent to sigir-academy-award at acm.org.

Inductees
The SIGIR Academy currently has these members:

Year Inductees
2024 Fernando Diaz, Donna Harman, Mounia Lalmas, Mark Sanderson, Yiqun Liu
2023 Nick Craswell, Nicola Ferro, Jimmy Lin, Tetsuya Sakai, Ryen W. White, Yiming Yang
2022 Charles L. A. Clarke, William Hersh, Jian-Yun Nie, Maarten de Rijke, Jaime Teevan, Justin Zobel
2021 James Allan, Jamie Callan, Noriko Kando, Diane Kelly, Alistair Moffat
2021 inaugural inductees Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Nicholas Belkin, Andrei Broder, William Cooper, W. Bruce Croft, Susan Dumais, Edward Fox, Ophir Frieder, Norbert Fuhr, Marti Hearst, Kalervo Järvelin, Thorsten Joachims, Michael Lesk, Yoelle Maarek, Marc Najork, C. J. van Rijsbergen, Stephen Robertson, Tefko Saracevic, Ellen Voorhees, ChengXiang Zhai

The inaugural inductees in 2021 were selected based on their existing recognition as past Salton Award recipients and/or as Fellows of the ACM.

Selection Committee
The Selection Committee for the Class of 2025 is as follows:

  • Tetsuya Sakai (2025)
  • Yiming Yang (2025)
  • Mounia Lalmas (2026)
  • Jimmy Lin (2026)
  • Yiqun Liu (2026)
  • Jian-Yun Nie (2026)
  • Justin Zobel (2026)

The composition of the Committee changes annually, with 3-4 Committee members continuing for a second (and final) year and 3-4 new members joining for a two-year term. The final induction year of Committee member terms are in parentheses in the list above. The Committee for 2025 will be finalised in early 2025.

The (non-voting) Chairs of the Selection Committee in 2025 are Yoelle Maarek and Marc Najork.

Frequently Asked Questions
1. May Selection Committee member and the non-voting Committee Chair be nominated?

No. This would be a conflict of interest. Selection Committee terms last only two years, so Committee members not yet inducted will soon be eligible for nomination once their terms are complete.

2. May Selection Committee members nominate or endorse nominees?

This is handled as a conflict of interest in the submission system, so the nominating committee member will not see or discuss the candidate they nominated. Committee members and non-voting chairs may not endorse candidates.

3. Is there a template for the one-page case for nomination?

No. Each case is different. Nominators should ensure that the case clearly covers the nomination criteria, highlighting the significance and the uniqueness of the nominee’s contributions and impact.

4. May the two external endorsers provide additional statements of endorsement?

No. This is not necessary. We are trying to keep the nomination process lightweight. Nominators are of course free to ask endorsers if there is anything that they believe should be highlighted in the one-page case for nomination, and to provide feedback on drafts.

Other Questions
If you have any questions about the SIGIR Academy, nominations, or the selection process, that are not covered in the FAQs, please contact the Chair of the Selection Committee at the email address above.