In 1992, ACM SIGMOD started the Annual SIGMOD Innovations Award and SIGMOD Contributions Award as part of its Awards Program. In 1999, a test-of-time award was introduced to honor a paper from ten years prior.  In 2004, SIGMOD, with the unanimous approval of ACM Council, renamed the Innovations Award in honor of Dr. Edgar F. (Ted) Codd (1923 – 2003), who invented the relational data model that led to the significant development of the database field as a scientific discipline.  In 2015, the System award was devised to recognize impactful systems (as opposed to papers).  Finally, this year marks the introduction of the Hector Garcia-Molina mentorship award. More details about each award are below.

The recipients will receive the awards at the annual ACM SIGMOD/PODS Conference in all cases.  If the award is shared among multiple recipients, each will receive a plaque, but the monetary prize will be shared.

Click here to see the call for nominations for the 2026 ACM SIGMOD Awards. Click on the link below to navigate to a specific award, its committee (if applicable), and its recipients.