CWI Soirée and Van Wijngaarden Awards
CWI Soirée and Van Wijngaarden Awards
Since 2006 and every five years, CWI presents the Van Wijngaarden Award to a mathematician and computer scientist of special significance during the festive Soirée. The award is named in memory of Adriaan van Wijngaarden (1916-1987), who is considered one of the founding fathers of computer science in the Netherlands.
Van Wijngaarden was director of Mathematisch Centrum (1961-1980), now known as CWI. He has been of invaluable importance for CWI and the evolution of computer science. Van Wijngaarden also laid the foundation for all contemporary mainstream computer languages.
In 2016 CWI celebrated Van Wijngaarden's 100th birthday. In ERCIM News appeared this article on Van Wijngaarden and his role in informatics (copy on CWI's website).
On 2 November 2016, the Van Wijngaarden Awards were awarded to mathematician Sara van de Geer and computer scientist Xavier Leroy. Previous awards went to Nancy Lynch and Persi Diaconis (2006), and Éva Tardos and John Butcher (2011). The Van Wijngaarden Awards consists of a bronze sculpture by Hanneke van den Bergh.
The next presentation of the Van Wijngaarden Awards to winners Marta Kwiatkowska and Susan Murphy would take place during a festive Soirée on 18 November 2021. This had to be cancelled due to corona measures. It has been postponed to 3 November 2022.
