Foundations of automata theory was laid down in 1950’s. Since that the theory has become a mature scientific discipline which is often seen as a cornerstone of theoretical computer science. The theory, however, has much broader connections to other research topics, such as algorithmics, algebra, and logic, just to mention a few of those. Moreover it is widely used in many applications.
Academician Arto Salomaa is one of the founding fathers of automata theory. He is also a co-founder, jointly with Grzegorz Rozenberg, of the conference of Developments of Language Theory. The conference was launched in 1993, and it has become the main conference in automata theory, formal languages, and related topics.
The Salomaa Prize is created to honour the work of Arto Salomaa, as well as the success of automata and formal languages theory. The award will be given in the annual DLT conference. It consists of the diploma and the prize of 2000 euros donated by the University of Turku.
The award is given to a distinguished researcher on his/her fundamental achievements on automata theory and related topics. The achievement might be a single article, a series of articles, or a broader impact on the theory. The criteria is the scientific excellence.
Any researcher on automata theory is eligible to the prize.
The selection of a winner is based on Call for Nominations. Any member of the community may prepare a nomination letter. The letter must clearly emphasize the merits of the candidate, and it must be signed by at least two recognized researchers.
The selection of the winner is decided by a three person international selection committee which is appointed by the steering committee of the conference. The selection should be approved by the steering committee. The term of the committee members is three years, and a member is a chair of the committee in his/her last year of the term. The committee is allowed to split the prize, as well as to decide that no prize is given in a particular year.
For a printable version see Guidelines-Salomaa_Prize-1.pdf.
