Travel and Student Registration Awards for FOCS 2012

Thanks to generous support from the National Science Foundation which sponsors FOCS 2012 through CCF-1252272 grant, there will be a total of $18,000 to support travel and student registration for FOCS 2012. The NSF travel awards are available to students and certain postdoctoral fellows (airfare and shared hotel accommodation as well as student registration) to fund at least 25 attendees. The NSF awards are only available to those at US institutions. Receipts will be required for all travel awards. Reimbursement will be made after the conference. Preference will be given to students who are FOCS 2012 authors. To apply, email the information listed below to focs-travel-support@cs.ucla.edu by September 21, 2012. Please use the following subject line: "FOCS 2012 travel-registration application".

1. Title of paper, if you are an author and whether you will be presenting the paper.
2. Whether you are a student or you are a postdoctoral fellow.
3. University name and country.
4. Amount of other travel funds that are available to you, accomplishments and interests in attending the conference.
5. A short statement describing you academic standing and interests, your expected graduation date and degree, advisor's name, and, if available, a URL for a working Web page. Also indicate whether and when you have attended previous major theory conferences (e.g. STOC and FOCS) and whether or not you have received other travel awards to do so.
6. (For students:) a supporting statement from your advisor confirming your status, recommending your attendance, and describing the availability of any other travel funds available. This should be included in a message with your name in the subject line from your advisor which should be e-mailed to the focs-travel-support@cs.ucla.edu address. (Note: vague statements such as "funds are tight" are not informative).
7. NSF and IEEE encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups for these awards.
   (Optional:) Please indicate if you are part of such a group or at an institution that is not typically represented at IEEE FOCS.
8. If you are at a US institution and requesting travel support you should submit a US dollar estimate of the airfare/transportion cost to the conference and the number of nights you will be staying.

This information will be used to prioritize the awards (see the prioritization for travel awards below). The awards will be announced on Tuesday, September 25. Late applications will not be accepted. NSF travel awards will be administered by Professor David Shmoys (TCMF Chair) and Profesor Rafail Ostrovsky (TCMF vice-chair). You should receive an email acknowledging your application within 3 days. If not, please resubmit or contact either Prof. Shmoys or Prof. Ostrovsky by some other means.

Priority for Travel Awards will be based on the following Criteria:

Institution:

• NSF Travel awards are for individuals at US institutions only.

Individual:

• Student authors and co-authors of accepted papers who do not have other support.
• Members of under-represented groups or from institutions not traditionally represented at the conference who have research interests in areas covered by FOCS whose attendance would broaden participation at the conference.
• Student applicants whose statements and supporting information make particularly strong justification for the benefit they will receive from attending the conference.
• Postdoctoral authors of accepted papers who do not have other travel support.
• First-time applicants and students who have not received travel stipends to FOCS or STOC in the recent past.
• Financial need and stage in research career.