{"id":2518,"date":"2026-01-27T02:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/?p=2518"},"modified":"2026-10-12T22:08:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:08:42","slug":"sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/2026\/01\/27\/sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Sven Koenig (2026 Autonomous Agents Research Award)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-1 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p>The selection committee for the ACM\/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Sven Koenig is the recipient of the 2026 award. Sven Koenig is Chancellor\u2019s Professor and Bren Chair at the Computer Science Department of UC Irvine. He is one of the foundational figures of modern AI planning and search, whose work has fundamentally shaped how intelligent agents reason and act in complex, dynamic environments. His contributions seamlessly bridge theory and practice, with a profound impact not only on AI and multi-agent systems, but also on robotics, where his algorithms have enabled robust, scalable autonomy in real-world robotic platforms. A Fellow of AAAI, AAAS, and ACM, Professor Koenig has received several best paper awards from AAAI, ICALP and SoCS, and contributed to the community in numerous service roles, most recently having served as the conference chair of AAAI 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sven-koenig-250x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sven-koenig-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sven-koenig-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The selection committee for the ACM\/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Sven Koenig is the recipient of the 2026 award. Sven Koenig is Chancellor\u2019s Professor and Bren Chair at the Computer Science Department of UC Irvine. He is one of the foundational figures of modern AI planning and search, whose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,37],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sven Koenig (2026 Autonomous Agents Research Award) - ACM SIGAI<\/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:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/2026\/01\/27\/sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sven Koenig (2026 Autonomous Agents Research Award) - ACM SIGAI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The selection committee for the ACM\/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award is pleased to announce that Professor Sven Koenig is the recipient of the 2026 award. Sven Koenig is Chancellor\u2019s Professor and Bren Chair at the Computer Science Department of UC Irvine. He is one of the foundational figures of modern AI planning and search, whose [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/2026\/01\/27\/sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ACM SIGAI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-27T02:00:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-12T22:08:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/sven-koenig-250x250.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Tsang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Tsang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/2026\/01\/27\/sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sigai.acm.org\/main\/2026\/01\/27\/sven-koenig-2026-autonomous-agents-research-award\/\",\"name\":\"Sven Koenig (2026 Autonomous Agents Research Award) - 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