Congratulations to Sven Koenig on winning the 2026 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award. This prestigious award is made for excellence in research in the area of autonomous agents. It is intended to recognize researchers in autonomous agents whose current work is an important influence on the field.

Professor Sven Koenig was recognised “for his work on AI planning and search, which has 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”.

Sven Koenig is Chancellor’s Professor and Bren Chair at the Computer Science Department of UC Irvine. 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.