Sacks Prize Nominations and other information

(a) The Association for Symbolic Logic is committed to maintaining the very high standard of the Sacks Prize. It reserves the right to award the prize to multiple winners or to make no award in any one year.

(b) Nominated theses should be outstanding both in terms of results and overall clarity.

(c) The thesis must have been defended by September 30 in the year of nomination. Nominations should be made by the thesis adviser, and should consist of the following: (1) Name of the student; (2) Title of thesis, date and location of the defense; (3) Letter of nomination from the adviser; (4) An independent second letter of recommendation; (5) Electronic copy of the thesis in .pdf or .ps format, or URL for a copy in .pdf or .ps format. Nominations should be sent to the Committee Chair, Julia Knight; .pdf or .ps files sent as attachments by email to Julia.F.Knight.1@nd.edu are preferred. Correspondence should be addressed to Julia Knight, Department of Mathematics, University of Notre Dame, 255 Hurley Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556-4618, USA.

(d) Theses should be in a form accessible to the committee. If they depend on unpublished material then full documentation should be provided. It is expected that both the adviser and the writer of the second letter are fully familiar with the details of the thesis and can vouch for its general correctness.

(e) Theses submitted for consideration for the Sacks Prize will be accepted in any language, provided that the candidate also supplies a 10-15 page summary of the thesis in English, outlining the main contributions, etc. The committee has the option to decline consideration on the grounds that it cannot obtain adequate independent evaluation in a particular language. If the committee of a particular year declines consideration of the thesis for that year, then the thesis can be submitted in translation for the next year's prize.

(f) The adviser's nomination letter should address the specific technical merits of the thesis, and may refer directly to the thesis details, which the committee will consult as needed. The second letter of support may address any matters considered relevant, such as the general importance of the results and the main ideas.

(g) In view of the Association's intention to maintain the very high standard of this award, it would be especially helpful if supporting letters could explain the context and general impact of the work, and compare the importance of the thesis to that of past winners. The committee reserves the right to obtain additional opinions regarding theses.

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