{"id":26277,"date":"2026-05-21T13:23:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T11:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/?post_type=sic_news&#038;p=26277"},"modified":"2026-06-12T10:48:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:48:04","slug":"danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing","status":"publish","type":"sic_news","link":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/","title":{"rendered":"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The 2026 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing has been awarded to an international team of researchers for their seminal 2011 paper, &#8220;Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation&#8221;. Among the recipients is Danupon Nanongkai, Director of the Algorithms and Complexity department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jointly presented by the ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC) and the EATCS Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC), the prize recognizes work that has had significant impact on the theory and practice of distributed computing over at least a decade. This years awardees are Atish Das Sarma, Stephan Holzer, Liah Kor, Amos Korman, Danupon Nanongkai, Gopal Pandurangan, David Peleg, and Roger Wattenhofer. Their paper shows that in distributed graph computations, the data links between machines form the key bottleneck. The system\u2019s performance is thus fundamentally constrained by the bandwidth of these connections. This insight helped to define the modern theory of bandwidth-constrained distributed computing, as mentioned in the award citation.<\/p>\n<p>Originally published at the ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) in 2011 and later in the <i>SIAM Journal on Computing<\/i> in 2012, the paper introduced a framework to determine the fundamental limits of distributed computing, a method where multiple computing systems act as a single unit. By connecting communication theory with network verification, the authors created a systematic way to prove the minimum time required to solve various problems. This applied to many key tasks, such as finding the shortest path or minimum cuts. Today, these methods are standard tools in the field. Also, the insights presented in the paper have shaped subsequent research, such as extending the framework to new problems and designing algorithms with matching bounds.<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 Dijkstra Prize Committee comprises James Aspnes (Yale University), Keren Censor-Hillel (Technion), Cyril Gavoille (University of Bordeaux), Seth Gilbert (National University of Singapore), Andrzej Pelc (Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec en Outaouais), and Eric Ruppert (York University); the award will be presented at PODC 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Danupon Nanongkai is a Scientific Director at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbr\u00fccken, Germany since 2022, where he heads the Algorithm and Complexity department. He received a Ph.D. in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization (ACO) from Georgia Tech in 2011 and a docent (aka habilitation) in Computer Science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>His research focuses on graph algorithms and computational complexity, with particular interest in developing algorithmic techniques that are effective across a range of computational models. He has contributed to efficient algorithms for fundamental graph problems, such as connectivity and distances, in settings ranging from sequential to distributed and dynamic algorithms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further information:<\/strong><br \/>Prize Announcement by PODC\/DISC: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.podc.org\/2026-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link-external\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><span style=\"color:#000080\"><u>https:\/\/www.podc.org\/2026-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/<\/u><\/span><\/a><br \/>Website of the Algorithms and Complexity department: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpi-inf.mpg.de\/de\/departments\/algorithms-complexity\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color:#000080\"><u>https:\/\/www.mpi-inf.mpg.de\/de\/departments\/algorithms-complexity<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Editor:<\/strong><br \/>Philipp Zapf-Schramm<br \/>Max Planck Institute for Informatics<br \/>Phone: +49 681 9325 4509<br \/>Email: <a href=\"mailto:pzs@mpi-inf.mpg.de\"><span style=\"color:#0563c1\"><u>pzs@mpi-inf.mpg.de<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing has been awarded to an international team of researchers for their seminal 2011 paper, &ldquo;Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation&rdquo;. Among the recipients is Danupon Nanongkai, Director of the Algorithms and Complexity department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.&nbsp; Jointly presented by the ACM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26275,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"sic_news-types":[56,59],"class_list":["post-26277","sic_news","type-sic_news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","sic_news-types-mpi-inf-en","sic_news-types-press-release-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2026 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing has been awarded to an international team of researchers for their seminal 2011 paper, &ldquo;Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation&rdquo;. Among the recipients is Danupon Nanongkai, Director of the Algorithms and Complexity department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.&nbsp; Jointly presented by the ACM [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Saarland Informatics Campus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sic.informatik.saarland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-12T08:48:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1278\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-21T11:23:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-12T08:48:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg\",\"width\":1278,\"height\":720},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/piece-of-news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Saarland Informatics Campus\",\"description\":\"in Saarbr\u00fccken, Germany\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Saarland Informatics Campus\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/SIC_logo_1453x343.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/SIC_logo_1453x343.png\",\"width\":1453,\"height\":343,\"caption\":\"Saarland Informatics Campus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/sic.informatik.saarland\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/bsky.app\\\/profile\\\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/saarland_informatics_campus\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCaDDK5m9CGCzE4xhZTFC6cA\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/saarland-informatics-campus\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus","og_description":"The 2026 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing has been awarded to an international team of researchers for their seminal 2011 paper, &ldquo;Distributed Verification and Hardness of Distributed Approximation&rdquo;. Among the recipients is Danupon Nanongkai, Director of the Algorithms and Complexity department at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics.&nbsp; Jointly presented by the ACM [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/","og_site_name":"Saarland Informatics Campus","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sic.informatik.saarland\/","article_modified_time":"2026-06-12T08:48:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1278,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/","url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/","name":"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing - Saarland Informatics Campus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-21T11:23:27+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-12T08:48:04+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/csm_1280-1787-max_4c7f44b618-e1781253924247.jpg","width":1278,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/danupon-nanongkai-awarded-the-edsger-w-dijkstra-prize-in-distributed-computing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/piece-of-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Danupon Nanongkai Awarded the Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/","name":"Saarland Informatics Campus","description":"in Saarbr\u00fccken, Germany","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#organization","name":"Saarland Informatics Campus","url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/SIC_logo_1453x343.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/SIC_logo_1453x343.png","width":1453,"height":343,"caption":"Saarland Informatics Campus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sic.informatik.saarland\/","https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/saarland-informatics-campus.de","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/saarland_informatics_campus\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCaDDK5m9CGCzE4xhZTFC6cA","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/saarland-informatics-campus"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sic_news\/26277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sic_news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sic_news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"sic_news-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saarland-informatics-campus.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sic_news-types?post=26277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}