SWSA Distinguished Dissertation Award
The Semantic Web Science Association (SWSA) invites applications for the SWSA Distinguished Dissertation Award. The award is presented during the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC).
Eligibility
Eligible doctoral dissertations are those which:
- present innovative research results related to the combination of semantics, data, and the Web,
- were awarded a PhD strictly between January 01, 2025 and June 30, 2026, and
- have not previously been nominated for this award.
The selection is based on the originality, significance, and impact of the work. Evidence of impact can include (but is not limited to) publications at highly selective conferences and journals in the field.
Award committee
The award committee comprises two members of SWSA and a number of external experts, and is the final arbiter in the decision process. The committee may consult additional external assessors and reserves the right to not award the prize if the applications do not meet the expected quality level.
The award
The award includes:
- a certificate
- a €1000 payment
- a free registration to ISWC 2026
How to apply
Submissions must be submitted via EasyChair on or before July 6 July 8, 2026 (due to issues during a website migration we extend the deadline for two days):
- EasyChair submission site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=swsadissertationawar012
Your submission must include:
- A PDF file of the dissertation
- A short paper (max 5 pages) summarizing the key contributions of the dissertation:
- PDF format
- formatted according to the Springer LNCS guidelines
- covering:
- Motivation and objectives
- Approach and novelty w.r.t. state of the art
- Major results
- Evaluation methods
- Significance, open issues, and future work
- A document listing publications associated with the dissertation, with links to the corresponding PDF files
- A letter from the supervisor or institution confirming the PhD was awarded between January 01, 2025 and June 30, 2026
The winner will be notified in mid August 2026.
For questions, contact: swsadissertationaward2026@easychair.org
Award committee for 2026
- Anastasia Dimou
- Andreas Harth
- Anna Lisa Gentile
- Birte Glimm
- Christian Bizer
- Dimitris Plexousakis
- Fabien Gandon
- Harith Alani
- Jeff Heflin
- José Luis Ambite
- Katja Hose
- Lalana Kagal
- Li Ding
- Maria-Esther Vidal
- Paul Groth
- Raphael Troncy
- Sabrina Kirrane
- Sebastian Rudolph
- Vojtěch Svátek