*** Please distribute widely throughout your institutions as appropriate DEADLINE: *June 15th 2018* The IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee (VGTC <http://vgtc.org/>) sponsors the annual Best Doctoral Dissertation Award program to recognize outstanding academic research and development in visualization and visual analytics. The dissertations must address a topic relevant to visualization or visual analytics. The competition will be administrated by the IEEE Visualization Pioneers Group (VPG <http://vgtc.org/content/ieee-vgtc-visualization-pioneers-group>) under the auspices of IEEE VGTC. The IEEE VGTC VPG Doctoral Dissertation Award is presented annually at the IEEE VPG Reception held at the IEEE VIS <http://ieeevis.org/> conference. ELIGIBILITY All English language dissertations that have been successfully defended between August 15 two years before the award and August 15 of the year of the competition are eligible (e.g. between August 15, 2016 and August 15, 2018 are eligible for the 2018 competition). SUBMISSION LIMITATION There is no limitation on the number of nominations that may be made by a university. SELECTION PROCEDURE Five IEEE VPG members will form a review committee to thoroughly review and assess the dissertation submissions. The committee will judge the dissertations based on their intellectual merit, technical depth, and presentation quality. The selection committee will recommend the winning dissertation to the IEEE VGTC chair by October 1. AWARD The winner of the IEEE VGTC VPG Doctoral Dissertation Award will receive not only a monetary prize of $500 provided by IEEE VGTC, but also a chance to describe the impact of the winning dissertation in an invited article that may be published in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CG&A) <http://www.computer.org/cga>. Professor Jim Foley of Georgia Tech and the editor of the CG&A Dissertation Impact Department will make the final determination about whether the article will be published. The CG&A Dissertation Impact Department recognizes the best and brightest dissertation work nominated by different visualization, computer graphics, and virtual reality technical communities from around the world. Thesis Advisor(s) of the winning entrant will chair the following year’s Dissertation Review Committee, with full support from the VPG OC to handle details such as publicity and administration. SUBMISSION DETAILS The student’s advisor should email the nomination package to vpg_awards@vgtc.org. The package must include: 1. A nomination letter written by the student’s advisor, which includes: - the name, email address, and phone number of the advisor, - the name and email address of the candidate, and - a one-page summary of the significance of the dissertation (references to papers should be provided on an extra sheet) 2. A copy of the dissertation. Optional additional letters of recommendation can be attached to the submission. On behalf of the VPG Operating Committee Dr. L. Miguel Encarnação Innovation Management Executive & Consultant *"The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. (Richard Hamming)"* -- LME@computer.org <lme@computer.org> @mencarna http://www.linkedin.com/in/drmiguel