Every year the ACM gives out an award for the best doctoral dissertation, as well as up to 3 honorable mentions.
This year, both honorable mentions were given to CS theorists: Aleksander Madry and David Steurer (the dissertation award was given to Seth Cooper for his work on protein folding games). Both Aleksander’s and David’s dissertations contain some great papers that significantly advanced the state of art on what algorithms can and cannot do.
I’m happy that great theory work is recognized, and also wanted to congratulate Aleksander and David, both of whom happen to be currently postdocs here at Microsoft Research New England.
Windows On Theory 