Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science


The IEEE Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science is an academic conference in the field of theoretical computer science. FOCS is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society.
As writes, FOCS and its annual Association for Computing Machinery counterpart STOC are considered the two top conferences in theoretical computer science, considered broadly: they "are forums for some of the best work throughout theory of computing that promote breadth among theory of computing researchers and help to keep the community together." includes regular attendance at FOCS and STOC as one of several defining characteristics of theoretical computer scientists.
WWW Official Site

Awards

The Knuth Prize for outstanding contributions to theoretical computer science is presented alternately at FOCS and STOC. Works of the highest quality presented at the conference are awarded the Best Paper Award. In addition, the Machtey Award is presented to the best student-authored paper in FOCS.

History

In 1960–1965, FOCS was known as the Symposium on Switching Circuit Theory and Logical Design, and in 1966–1974 it was known as the Symposium on Switching and Automata Theory. The current name has been used since 1975. The publisher uses the acronym SFCS on their web sites for the conferences in 1975 to 1987.
The cover pages of the conference feature an artwork entitled synapse, by Alvy Ray Smith; Smith donated the original artwork to the Simons Institute in 2023.

Location

FOCS is almost exclusively held in North America, and in particular in the United States, with few exceptions.
YearPC and Local ChairsLocationSteering CommitteeTest of Time Award Committee
1975Daniel Rosenkrantz, Eugene Lawler Berkeley
1976Michael Fischer, Meera Blattner Houston
1977Paul Young, John Savage Providence
1978Nancy Lynch, William Rounds Ann Arbor
1979Rao Kosaraju, Rolando Peinado San Juan, Puerto Rico
1980Syracuse
1981Arnold Rosenberg, Patrick Fischer Nashville
1982Chicago
1983Lawrence Snyder, Peter Downey Tucson
1984Singer Island
1985Robert Tarjan, Eugene Luks Portland
1986John Hopcroft, Charles Rackoff TorontoAshok Chandra
1987Tom Leighton, Seymour Ginsburg, Ming-Deh Huang Los Angeles"
1988White Plains--
1989Zvi Galil, Jon Reif Research Triangle ParkChristos Papadimitriou
1990Mihalis Yannakakis, Jonathan Turner St. Louis"
1991Mike Sipser, Tom Leighton, Alok Aggarwal San Juan, Puerto Rico"
1992Michael Luby, Gary Miller Pittsburgh
1993Leonidas J. Guibas, Andrei Broder Palo Alto
1994Shafi Goldwasser, Sorin Istrail Santa Fe
1995Prabhakar Raghavan, Aditi Dhagat, Rene Peralta Milwaukee
1996Martin Tompa, Carl Smith Burlington
1997Anna Karlin, Victor Milenkovic Miami Beach
1998Rajeev Motwani, Michael Mitzenmacher Palo Alto
1999Paul Beame, Piotr Berman New York
2000Avrim Blum, Marek Chrobak, Tao Jiang Redondo Beach
2001Moni Naor, Lawrence Larmore, Wolfgang BeinLas Vegas
2002Bernard Chazelle Arvind Gupta Vancouver, Canada
2003Madhu Sudan, Michael Mitzenmacher Cambridge
2004Eli Upfal, Giuseppe F. Italiano Rome, Italy
2005Eva Tardos, Avrim Blum, Anupam Gupta Pittsburgh
2006Sanjeev Arora, Satish Rao Berkeley
2007Alistair Sinclair, Philip Klein, Anna Lysyanskaya, Claire Mathieu Providence
2008R. Ravi, Sudipto Guha, Sanjeev Khanna, Sampath Kannan PhiladelphiaPaul Beame
2009Dan Spielman, David Shmoys, Milena Mihail, Prasad Tetali Atlanta"
2010Luca Trevisan, Larry Larmore Las Vegas"
2011Rafail Ostrovsky, Marek Chrobak, Neal Yong,Palm Springs"
2012Tim Roughgarden, Rebecca Wright, Lisa Zhang, Boaz Barak, Avrim Blum New BrunswickDavid Shmoys
2013Omer Reingold, Christos Papadimitriou, Umesh Vazirani, Moses Charikar, Chris Umans Berkeley"
2014Boaz Barak, Rebecca Wright, Lisa Zhang, Sanjeev Khanna, Kunal Talwar Philadelphia"
2015Venkatesan Guruswami, Kristin Kane, Prasad Raghavendra, Luca TrevisanBerkeleyRafail Ostrovsky
2016Irit Dinur, Rebecca Wright, Lisa Zhang, Alexandr Andoni, Aleksander Mądry New Brunswick"
2017Chris Umans, Andrew Jan, Prasad Raghavendra, Aleksander Mądry, Berkeley"
2018Mikkel Thorup, Adi Rosén, Sophie Laplante, Alessandro Luongo, Robert Kleinberg, Paris, FranceYuval Rabani, Shang-Hua Teng, Avrim Blum, Shafi Goldwasser, Rafail Ostrovsky, Toniann Pitassi
2019David Zuckerman, Michael Dinitz, Maria-Florina Balcan, Robert Kleinberg Baltimore"Paul Beame, Allan Borodin, Uriel Feige, Monika Henzinger, Johan Håstad, Mihalis Yannakakis
2020Sandy Irani, Debmalya Panigrahi, Kamesh Munagala, Maria-Florina Balcan, Alexander Sherstov Virtual "Paul Beame, Uriel Feige, Anna Karlin, Yishay Mansour, Claire Mathieu, Luca Trevisan
2021Nisheeth Vishnoi, Alexandra Kolla, Vincent Cohen-Addad, Alexander Sherstov Virtual "Russell Impagliazzo, Yael Tauman Kalai, Anna Karlin, Yishay Mansour, Michael Saks, Luca Trevisan
2022Jelani Nelson, Alexandra Kolla, Rong Ge, Vincent Cohen-Addad, DenverShang-Hua Teng, Venkatesan Guruswami, Avrim Blum, Shafi Goldwasser, Rafail Ostrovsky, Toniann Pitassi, Yuval RabaniRussell Impagliazzo, Yael Tauman Kalai, Michael Saks, Alistair Sinclair, Éva Tardos, David Zuckerman
2023Amit Sahai, Shubhangi Saraf, Thomas Vidick, Alexandra Kolla, Pravesh Kothari, Santa Cruz"Jin-Yi Cai, Faith Ellen, Leonard Schulman, Alistair Sinclair, Éva Tardos, David Zuckerman
2024Santosh Vempala, Aravindan Vijayaraghavan, Lev Reyzin, Mohsen Ghaffari, Pravesh Kothari ChicagoRan Canetti, Rocco Servedio Jin-Yi Cai, Julia Chuzhoy, Constantinos Daskalakis, Faith Ellen, Shafi Goldwasser, Leonard Schulman
2025Ran Raz, Rotem Oshman, Clément Canonne, Troy Lee, Mohsen Ghaffari, Dakshita Khurana Sydney, AustraliaRan Canetti, Rocco Servedio Shafi Goldwasser, Julia Chuzhoy, Constantinos Daskalakis, Irit Dinur, Piotr Indyk, Ryan O’Donnell