The Logical Mind: Connecting Foundations and Technology Competition

(Organized by the Kurt Gödel Society with support from the John Templeton Foundation)

The Kurt Gödel Society is proud to announce the commencement of the Kurt Gödel Research Prize Fellowships Program- The Logical Mind: Connecting Foundations and Technology.

The program has a particular emphasis on supporting young scholars as previous rounds of Kurt Gödel Research Prize Fellowships showed that the impact on the careers of the young researchers had the most significance. Young scholars are defined by being less or exactly 40 years old at the time of the commencement of the Vienna Summer of Logic (July 9, 2014). The program will offer: One fellowship award in the amount of EUR 100,000, in each of the following categories:
- Logical Foundations of Mathematics,
- Logical Foundations of Computer Science and
- Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence
The awards will be based on a categorized world-wide open competition by way of submission of up to three-pages project description, CV and two letters of recommendation.
The applicant will have to choose an applicable category him/herself.
The following three Boards of Jurors will choose four finalists from their respective discipline electronically:
Logical Foundations of Mathematics: Jan Krajíček, Angus Macintyre, and Dana Scott (Chair).*
Logical Foundations of Computer Science: Franz Baader, Johann Makowsky, and Wolfgang Thomas (Chair).
Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence: Luigia Carlucci Aiello, Georg Gottlob (Chair), and Bernhard Nebel.
The winners will be chosen by all three juries together.
The finalists will be invited to submit an extended project proposal version electronically before the Vienna Summer of Logic and only the finalists shall be entitled to reviewer’s feedback.
* Harvey Friedman resigned from the jury for purely personal reasons.
Finalists will be obliged to submit a full version of their proposal (up to 20 pages)
All deliberations will be performed electronically. The same shall apply to all decisions
All finalists except for the winners will receive silver medals and certificates per post.
Gold medals will be awarded to the winners at the ceremony held in the Celebration Hall of the Vienna University of Technology together with silver medals for the winners of fifteen major competitions related to the conceptual progress in computer science.
The winners will be obliged to write an article for publication in the book containing planned contributions from the winners of all fellowships rounds organized by the Kurt Gödel Society with support of the John Templeton Foundation.

Timeline

~~March 2, 2014 (midnight PST):~~	~~Proposals submission deadline~~
~~March 31, 2014:~~	~~Jury decision on finalists due~~
March 16, 2014 (midnight PST) (NEW):	Proposals submission deadline
April 11, 2014 (NEW):	Jury decision on finalists due
May 30, 2014:	Full proposals due
June 20, 2014:	Jury decision on winners due
July 17, 2014:	Foundations and Technology Competitions Award Ceremony
August 1, 2014:	Commencement of the fellowship
July 31, 2016:	End of the fellowships program

Criteria of Merit

These fellowships are intended to carry forward the legacy of Kurt Gödel, whose works exemplify deep insights and breakthrough discoveries in logic, with profound impact on the philosophy and foundations of mathematics. In pursuit of similar insights and discoveries, we adopt the following criteria of merit for evaluating Fellowship applications:

Intellectual merit, scientific rigor and originality of the submitted project, which should combine visionary thinking with academic and scientific excellence.
Potential for significant contribution to basic fundamental issues of wide interest, and the likelihood for opening new, seminal lines of inquiry that bear on such issues.
Impact of the Fellowship on the project and likelihood that the Fellowship will make the proposed new lines of research possible.
Adherence to and engagement with some subset of themes and big questions as highlighted in the exemplary questions. Sample questions for Logical Foundations of AI can be found here. Sample questions for Logical Foundations of Mathematics can be found here. The Logical Foundations in Computer Science sample projects can be found under the Logical Foundations of AI and the Logical Foundations of Mathematics.
Potential for establishing connection between alien fields of research.
The expectation that the proposed research will be successful.
Qualifications of the applicants will be evaluated on the basis of all available information including CV, project proposal and letters of recommendation.

Submission Instructions

The three submission categories of fellowships are specified as follows:

Logical Foundations of Mathematics
Logical Foundations of Computer Science
Logical Foundations of Artificial Intelligence

Each applicant MUST be less or exactly 40 years old at the time of the commencement of the Vienna Summer of Logic (July 9, 2014), i.e. born on or after July 9, 1974.
All submissions must be by a single-author.
The submission must consist of:
One document in PDF format containing:

the CV,
the project description (up to 3 pages in length)
two letters of recommendation

This document must be prepared in the following way:

minimum font size: 10pt
paper size: A4
maximum length of the CV: 3 pages
The CV must contain the list of all/most important publications.
The CV must clearly state to which category the application belongs.
maximum length of project description: 3 pages
two 1-page letters of recommendation

The submission must be in English.
The Boards reserve the right to consider only submissions with reasonable format. The applicant will be informed about the reasons for such a decision.

Due to high demand, the submission deadline was extended to March 16, 2014, midnight PST. Currently, it is not obligatory to include letters of recommendation. However, all finalists will be obliged to submit such letters at a later stage.

Submission Page

Please submit your proposal at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=goedel2014 (the submission category can be chosen in the EasyChair system).

Contact: goedel2014@logic.at