CSNA Distinguished Dissertation Award Nominations, due Feb 1

The Classification Society Distinguished Dissertation Award supported by Chapman and Hall/CRC

The Award will be for the best PhD (or approximately equivalent doctoral) dissertation nomimated by an annual deadline. The theme is clustering, classification, related areas of data analysis, encompassing both associated theory and/or applications.

The Award is administered by CSNA. An evaluation committee is set up by CSNA to evaluate the nominated theses. In 2009-2010, the evaluation committee is:

• Samantha Prins (chair, Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics, James Madison University),
• Fionn Murtagh (Science Foundation Ireland; and Dept. of Computer Science, Royal Holloway, University of London),
• Douglas Steinley (Dept. of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia),
• Rebecca Nugent (Dept. of Statistics, Carnegie Mellon University),
• Nema Dean (Dept. of Statistics, University of Glasgow) and
• special invited member: Innar Liiv (Dept. of Informatics, Tallinn University of Technology; 2008-2009 Award winner).

Nominations are to be received by 1 February 2010, from the author (PhD), their advisor/supervisor, or other related person. Nomination includes the name and contact points, an online copy of the dissertation, and a short description of why the dissertation merits the award (see above). A decision is made by the evaluation committee by 1 May. The evaluation committee can recommend one award; an award and a runner-up; two joint winners; or other combinations if they think it appropriate.

In 2010 the Award totals US$ 500 in book vouchers from Chapman and Hall/CRC. The winner will be invited to make a presentation in a special plenary session at the CS Annual Meeting. Up to $500 of the Award winner's travel expenses to the Annual Meeting will be covered by CS.

Contact for information and nominations: prinssc (at) jmu (.) edu

See further information at the Classification Society, www.classification-society.org/csna