Call for David Gries CM/PL Rising Star Award Nominees

On behalf of the ER Institute and the ER Steering Committee, we are soliciting nominations for the 2026 David Gries CM/PL Rising Star Award.

Dr. David Gries, a distinguished professor at Cornell, is internationally known for his pioneering work in computer languages and education. He has made significant research contributions by relating concepts from logic and semantics to programming languages and methodologies. Dr. Gries has also published several widely adopted textbooks. Many of his students at Stanford and Cornell are now well established in academia and industry.

To honor his exceptional achievements, Dr. Raj Reddy (a Turing Award winner) and Dr. Peter P. Chen (the developer of the Entity-Relationship Model) have teamed up to establish an award to encourage young scientists to follow in Dr. David Gries’ steps in making significant contributions to computer language research and education, related to a new direction — conceptual modeling (such as the ER Model, Business Process Model, etc.).

In particular, the award is aimed at young, promising researchers who can demonstrate their vision and capabilities for integrating the two research domains of CM (Conceptual Modeling) and PL (Programming Languages). One objective of the award is to inject fresh ideas and approaches into the ER Conference and create a snowball effect.

Therefore, the winner will receive an invitation to give a short research presentation at the ER2026 Conference. If, for any reason, the winner cannot participate in the conference, he/she will receive an award plaque. For participation in the conference, the winner will receive a plaque plus a prize of up to $3000 composed of: (1) $2,000 sponsored by Dr. Reddy and Dr. Chen; and (2) up to $1,000 contributed by Dr. Gries if the winner’s personal and funding sources are not sufficient to cover the travel expenses.

Qualifications of the Award Nominees:

1. The nominee must be an individual.
2. The nominee must be under 40 years old; more precisely, the nominee should be born after December 31, 1986.
3. Preferably, though not required, the nominee has made significant contributions to one of these two domains—Computer Language/Methodology and Conceptual Modeling—and also has started working in the other domain.
4. The nominee has developed a programming language (a prototype or a product) for a conceptual model or has innovative ideas/plans to do so. Alternatively, the nominee has utilized a conceptual model in the development/improvement of a programming language/methodology or has innovative ideas/plans to do so.

Encouragement of Nominees Outside of the ER Community

Since this is the first year of the David Gries CM/PL Rising Star Award, special preference will be given to those who have never participated in ER conferences before.

Nomination Process

• Each nomination involves three individuals: a nominator, a nominee, and a nomination supporter.
• Each nomination package consists of three components:
  • From the nominator: a proposed citation (up to 25 words), a detailed statement to justify the nomination (500 words or fewer), and other relevant materials.
  • From the nominee: personal information (CV and the URL to the home page, plus self-certification of age) and research accomplishments/ideas/plans relevant to the award. It may indicate whether the nominee has participated in the ER conferences before.
  • From the supporter: a support letter.
• All three components can be sent in one email (preferably in one PDF file). If more than one email is sent for a specific nomination package, please use the same subject line.

Nominations should be sent by Friday, July 10, 2026, to the ER Steering Committee Chair, Giancarlo Guizzardi, who will manage the selection process.

Based on the award criteria and the case made for the nomination, the selection committee will select the best candidate among the nominees. Members of the selection committee and the ER Steering Committee are not eligible for the award.

The winner will be announced immediately after selection. The award winner will be invited to participate in ER 2026 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, October 5-8, 2026.