AI Matters: our blog

The selection committee for the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Shlomo Zilberstein is the recipient of the 2025 award. Shlomo Zilberstein is Professor of Computer Science and former Associate Dean of Research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His work established the field of decentralized Markov Decision Processes (DEC-MDPs), laying the groundwork for decision-theoretic planning in multi-agent systems and multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). These contributions have become a cornerstone of multi-agent decision-making, influencing researchers and practitioners alike. A Fellow of AAAI and the ACM, Professor Zilberstein has received numerous awards, including the UMass Chancellor’s Medal, the IFAAMAS Influential Paper Award, and the AAAI Distinguished Service Award.

The selection committee for the ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Catholijn Jonker is the recipient of the 2024 award. Professor Catholijn Jonker is full professor of Interactive Intelligence at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science of the Delft University of Technology. Professor Jonker is a leader in the field of human-machine interaction, in particular regarding modeling the cognitive processes and concepts involved in negotiation and teamwork. Professor Jonker initiated the Automated Negotiating Agents Competition at AAMAS and IJCAI. She has also contributed to other research domains such as integrating interactive intelligence for hybrid intelligent systems. She is also very active in advancing research into value-sensitive and responsible AI. She is very much involved in promoting women in academic positions. She chaired the Network of Female Professors. She is a role model for many young researchers. Her research is highly visible and praised. Professor Jonker received numerous awards. She was the past President of IFAAMAS.