SIGPLAN-M

The SIGPLAN-M logo: two purple lambdas holding hands in the shape of the letter M.

The SIGPLAN Long-Term Mentoring Committee (SIGPLAN-M) organizes an international long-term mentoring program for programming languages researchers. The goal of the program is to address two mentoring needs in the programming languages community:

  1. For aspiring or junior researchers, it is difficult—but necessary—to form long-term connections in the programming languages community, and to access the perspectives of researchers from other institutions.
  2. For senior researchers, it is difficult to access mentorship of any kind.

In response to these needs, SIGPLAN-M matches mentors with mentees from different institutions for mentoring relationships that last at least a year. As of May 2024, there are about 350 mentees and 250 mentors participating in the program. Here are some testimonials from mentees:

[SIGPLAN-M is] a career saver!

[My mentor] is incredible AND the only person I talk to regularly who has an interest in the same topics that I do. Talking with [my mentor] gives me a sense of community that I hadn’t had before.

[SIGPLAN-M] was life changing.

I wouldn’t be able to obtain technical feedback for my work if SIGPLAN-M did not exist.

Just talking to [my mentor] is incredibly validating. [My mentor’s] support means the world to me.

My mentor is amazing… Also, they made me think differently (in a positive way) about Academia and made me want to stay :).

I had no idea what I was doing before, but now I have a pretty good idea of what to work on and a better sense of if I’m doing the right things/enough for grad school applications.

I got help in all aspects - from research to getting through [a] graduate program.

Check out our Twitter for the latest news! You can also read more about us in our article in Communications of the ACM.

Committee Members

Getting Involved

We welcome aspiring and current programming languages researchers from all walks of life to serve as mentors, mentees, or both. SIGPLAN members and non-members alike are welcome, and there is no cost to participate. There are no limitations on country of residence or languages spoken.

Please see our mentoring guidelines for more information on what the mentoring relationships look like, what sort of commitment is involved, and what other resources might be useful for mentors and mentees.

Becoming a Mentor

We are always recruiting new mentors! Graduate students, postdocs, industrial researchers, and faculty all make great mentors. Please sign up here if you are interested in serving as a mentor.

Becoming a Mentee

We typically recruit and match new mentees in waves leading up to the POPL, PLDI, ICFP, and SPLASH conferences. You may sign up at any time using this form.

When there are more mentees than open spots, we maintain a waitlist and match as mentors become available. In matching from the waitlist, we prioritize PLMW attendees, members of marginalized groups, aspiring or junior researchers with little access to the programming languages community, and anyone who has an urgent need for mentoring.

Examples of urgent needs for mentoring include but are not limited to mental health struggles, advisor-advisee conflicts, ongoing job or graduate school applications, and abusive situations at work or in the community. If any of these apply, and if you are comfortable doing so, please feel free to contact us so that we match you in a timely fashion.

Thank You, Mentors!

We really appreciate all of our mentors for the amazing work they do—and we want the world to know how much we appreciate it! Here is a list of some of our amazing mentors. If you are already a mentor for us, and you’re welcome to being thanked publicly, please let us know and we’ll happily add you to this list!

We’d like to thank these amazing mentors:

  • Jonathan Aldrich
  • Stavros Aronis
  • Tom Ball
  • Hongzheng Chen
  • Sheng Chen
  • Michael Coblenz
  • Jonathan DiLorenzo
  • Alastair Donaldson
  • Jana Dunfield
  • Sebastian Erdweg
  • Tobias Grosser
  • Jason Hemann
  • Kuen-Bang Hou (Favonia)
  • Patrik Jansson
  • Ralf Jung
  • Konstantinos Kallas
  • Raffi Khatchadourian
  • Kalyan Krishnamani
  • Shriram Krishnamurthi
  • Paddy Krishnan
  • Ismail Kuru
  • Patrick Lam
  • Leonidas Lampropoulos
  • John Leo
  • Yishuai Li
  • Justin Lubin
  • William Mansky
  • Mae Milano
  • Andrey Mokhov
  • Joe Politz
  • Kia Rahmani
  • Norman Ramsey
  • Talia Ringer
  • Sukyoung Ryu
  • Roopsha Samanta
  • Mike Samuel
  • Satnam Singh
  • Gus Smith
  • Caleb Stanford
  • Kathrin Stark
  • Simon Thompson
  • Dimitris Vardoulakis
  • Chengpeng Wang
  • John Wickerson
  • James Wilcox
  • Max Willsey
  • Dominik Winterer
  • Li-yao Xia
  • Jie Zhou

And we’d of course also like to thank everyone else who has served or currently serves as a mentor for SIGPLAN-M!

Your service makes a huge difference in the careers and lives of our mentees. SIGPLAN is better off for having you.