AAAI Fellows Nomination Letter
October 15, 2007
Dear AAAI Member:
Each year the AAAI recognizes as Fellows a few individuals who have made significant, sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence. On behalf of the Fellows Selection Committee, I invite you to nominate a member of the AAAI to become a new Fellow.
The Fellows Program, as originally chartered, honors a small percentage of the AAAI membership for providing intellectual leadership and making significant research or service contributions to the field over many years. AAAI Fellowship is a lifetime honor.
The AAAI Fellows program intends to recognize individuals each year who have made outstanding contributions to the theory or practice of AI in industry and government as well as in academia. Both individual technical contributions and significant extended service to the field are considered in the selection process. Fellows from industry or government may have made substantial contributions to either AI research or the championing and adoption of AI technology in industry or government. Evidence of technical contribution will often be in the form of publications, but other forms of evidence include patent awards, notable software, or outstanding contributions to industrial group efforts.
Nominees must be either life members of the Association or current members of AAAI with membership for the past (3) consecutive years. Usually, only members who have contributed to the field for a decade or more after receiving their Ph.D. (or are at an equivalent career stage) will be selected.
Fellows are selected by a Fellows Selection Committee comprising nine current Fellows, and chaired by the Past President of AAAI. One third of the committee members are replaced each year. The policies governing the operation of the Fellows Committee are reviewed by the Executive Council at the spring and summer Council meetings.
If you wish to nominate someone, please complete the nomination form and find two additional people who are willing to write letters of reference. Please direct them to www.aaai.org/Awards/fellows.php for a copy of the reference form. The nominator or one of the people providing a reference must be a AAAI Fellow who is a current member. The list of AAAI Fellows is also available at http://www.aaai.org/Awards/fellows.php. References from researchers who are relatively independent of the nominee (i.e., not thesis advisors, students, coauthors, or colleagues from the same institution) carry the most weight, as do references that do not merely repeat the content of the nomination. Notes on the forms indicate restrictions on form and length.
Please ensure that your nomination and reference materials arrive at the AAAI office by February 15, 2008. We cannot accept anything received after that date. We will acknowledge receipt of nominations, but the nominee will not be contacted by us, in case you wish to keep the nomination confidential. Final decisions on the candidates will become available after May 1, 2008, and Fellows will be officially welcomed at a dinner for Fellows held at the AAAI-08 conference.
Nominators will be told of the result of the decision for any nomination(s) they made. For an unsuccessful nomination that was submitted, a nominator will have the choice of withdrawing the nomination to wait until a more appropriate time, updating the nomination for the following year with another reference letter or with a revised nomination form to make the case more strongly, or leaving the nomination unchanged for consideration for next year.
Unsuccessful nominations that are not explicitly withdrawn by the nominator will be automatically reconsidered for up to two additional years and then withdrawn.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to send me email. We look forward to your participation in this important program.
Sincerely,
Alan K. Mackworth
Chair, AAAI Fellows Selection Committee
fellows08@aaai.org