The Association for Computability in Europe is glad to announce that the S. Barry Cooper Prize for the Year 2023 is awarded to Rodney G. Downey (Victoria Universityof Wellington).
The award is given to a researcher who has contributed to a broad understanding and foundational study of computability by
(a) outstanding results;
(b) seminal and lasting theory building; and
(c) exceptional service to the research communities.
Rod Downey has an impressive record of accomplishment on all three fronts, with a breadth of contribution that is truly outstanding. He has been involved, inter alia, in establishing important results on the lattice of computably enumerable degrees, on algorithmic randomness and in parameterized complexity. More than the individual results he is widely recognized as a founding figure in the subject of parameterized complexity and as having inspired a great burgeoning of interest in algorithmic randomness. His influential books, with Fellows on Parameterized Complexity (1999), with Hirschfeldt on Algorithmic Randomness and Complexity (2010) and with Greenberg on A Hierarchy of Turing Degrees (2020) stand as testament to the sweep of his impact. At the same time, he has played a pivotal role in building research communities, including not only the international community in his research areas but the mathematical community in New Zealand.
The prize will be formally announced at the Conference CiE 2023 in Batumi (Georgia) and the award lecture will be delivered during the Conference CiE 2024 in Amsterdam (the Netherlands)
The Prize is awarded by the ACiE Council based on a recommendation by the Prize Committee, formed by
Anuj Dawar
Peter Van Emde Boas
Yuri Gurevitch
Mariya Soskova
Elvira Mayordomo (ex officio)