The EATCS Elections from a Climate Crisis Perspective

Written by TijndeVos
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Elections are currently underway for the council of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS). The EATCS plays a pivotal role in organizing conferences and shaping policy within the field. Its flagship event, ICALP, is widely regarded as the premier European conference in theoretical computer science, and the association also supports a range of other meetings such as DISC, ESA, LICS, MFCS, and WADS.

At present, the EATCS does not have any policy addressing climate change. Moreover, publishing at ICALP currently requires an in-person presentation, which excludes climate-conscious researchers who are limiting their travel. Among the 24 candidates, 16 mention climate change in some form as a topic relevant to the EATCS. In this blog, we give a high-level overview of the candidates' statements on the matter. Please note that the nuanced positions of each candidate may not be fully captured here; we encourage readers to consult the original statements for a complete picture.

Voting can be done here and closes October 31st. There are 24 candidates this year, of which 9 will be elected to join the council. Each EATCS member can vote for up to 5 candidates. You can check whether you are an EATCS member by logging in/resetting your account here or contacting the secretary at secretary@eatcs.org.


TCS4F Supporters

First, we remark that 10 of the 24 candidates are in fact supporters of the TCS4F manifesto:

  • Manuel Bodirsky
  • Thomas Colcombet
  • Johannes Fischer
  • Marcin Jurdzinski
  • Denis Kuperberg
  • Yannic Maus
  • Yasamin Nazari
  • Jakub Oprsal
  • Jukka Suomela
  • Thomas Zeume

Of course, there is a difference between personal behavior and EATCS policy, and neither is this an exhaustive list of the candidates that care about the climate. So let's have a look at the election statements of the candidates. The main topics in their statements are:

  1. mandatory attendance;
  2. selecting conference locations wisely;
  3. co-locating different events;
  4. incentivizing train travel; and
  5. incentivizing combining conferences with research visits.


Mandatory Attendance

The most impactful for the climate, is 1) changing the rule that publishing at conferences like ICALP require in-person attendance (see this column and the calculations in this report). Six candidates explicitly mention that we need to reconsider mandatory attendance policies:

  • Manuel Bodirsky
  • Javier Esparza
  • Daniele Gorla
  • Denis Kuperberg
  • Yannic Maus
  • Yasamin Nazari


Candidates mentioning the climate crisis

Lastly, let me give a complete list of all candidates and which climate policy they mention in their statements. Of course, a candidate that does not mention a certain policy is not necessarily against it. Personally, I do believe that candidates that list a specific measure are more likely to initiate action to make the idea a reality.

  • Alkida Balliu (2, 4, 5)
  • Manuel Bodirsky (1)
  • Thomas Colcombet
  • Javier Esparza (1)
  • Paolo Ferragina
  • Johannes Fischer
  • Daniele Gorla (1)
  • Marcin Jurdzinski
  • Denis Kuperberg (1)
  • Yannic Maus (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
  • Yasamin Nazari (1, 2)
  • Jakub Oprsal
  • Eva Rotenberg (3)
  • Laura Sanita (2, 3)
  • Jukka Suomela (2)


Written by: Tijn de Vos, Antoine Amarilli

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