Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is granted yearly by the Association for Computing Machinery ( ACM ) to honor " specific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing " . It was instituted in 1996 , in memory of Paris C. Kanellakis , a computer scientist who died with his immediate family in an airplane crash in South America in 1995 ( American Airlines Flight 965 ) . The award is accompanied by a prize of $ 10,000 and is endowed by contributions from Kanellakis 's parents , with additional financial support provided by four ACM Special Interest Groups ( SIGACT , SIGDA , SIGMOD , and SIGPLAN ) , the ACM SIG Projects Fund , and individual contributions
American Airlines Flight 965
American Airlines Flight 965
Paris Kanellakis Award