Subject: 1999 genetic and evolutionary computation

invitation to become a member of the program committee for the 1999 genetic and evolutionary computation conference ( gecco-99 ) http : / / www-illigal . ge . uiuc . edu / gecco / greetings : the 1999 genetic and evolutionary computation conference ( gecco ) would like to invite recent authors of papers related to genetic and evolutionary computation ( gec ) to become members of the program committee of the gecco conference to be held on july 13-17 , 1999 in orlando , florida . as you may know , the 1999 genetic and evolutionary computation conference ( gecco ) will be a combined meeting of the eighth international conference on genetic algorithms ( icga ) and the fourth annual genetic programming conference ( gp ) in cooperation with the american association for artificial intelligence ( aaai ) , parallel problem solving from nature ( ppsn ) steering committee , the international conference on evolvable systems ( ices ) steering committee , and other organizations and conferences to be announced . gecco will be held in lieu of icga-99 and gp-99 , and as such , it combines the oldest continuously running gec conference , and the two largest gec conferences . we believe that the gecco conference in 1999 will be a unique opportunity to bring together an exceptionally large number of people from all facets of genetic and evolutionary computation . being on the program committee will involve reading , reviewing , and ranking about half a dozen submitted papers on genetic and evolutionary computation or related areas during the month of february 1999 . ( the paper submission deadline for gecco-99 is wednesday , january 27 , 1999 ) . the willingness of active contributors to help the conference in this way is absolutely critical to the success of gecco . in the past , some have complained that their point of view has been excluded from the review process . by agreeing to join us , active gec researchers will help make the gecco review process fair , open , and broadly participatory . as part of the charter establishing this conference , extraordinary steps have been taken to ensure that ( 1 ) review representation is exceptionally broad and ( 2 ) the traditions , norms , and standards of the different flavors of gec are respected . let us take a brief moment to explain how this will be done . first , the charter of the conference says that reviewers are automatically invited based on their recent contribution of a peer-reviewed publication : a person may be a reviewer for the conference if he or she is an author of at least one peer-reviewed paper in a journal , conference proceedings book , or collected book of papers published since january 1 , 1995 involving any aspect or combinations of aspects of [ genetic and ] evolutionary computation . thus , becoming a reviewer is even-handedly based on recency of peer-reviewed contribution . second , gecco explicitly recognizes and respects the different traditions of different sub-fields within gec and related disciplines . as such , the conference has established six different tracks each with its own chair / editor : 1 . evolution strategies / evolutionary programming ( es / ep ) . a . e . eiben , gusz @ wi . leidenuniv . nl 2 . genetic algorithms / classifier systems ( ga / cs ) . robert e . smith , rsmith @ btc . uwe . ac . uk 3 . genetic programming / evolvable hardware ( gp / eh ) . wolfgang banzhaf ( also proceedings editor - in - chief ) , banzhaf @ ls11 . informatik . uni-dortmund . de 4 . artificial life , adaptive behavior , and agents ( aaa ) . vasant honavar , honavar @ cs . iastate . edu 5 . dna and molecular computing ( dna / mc ) . max h . garzon , mgarzon @ memphis . edu 6 . real - world applications ( rwa ) . mark jakiela , mjj @ mecf . wustl . edu these separate " demes " will establish separate rules and standards for paper acceptance based on the practices within the sub-discipline . in this way , we hope to more closely group " birds of a feather " and thereby avoid the rejection of high quality papers by reviewers who are less than familiar with the standards that should apply to a particular kind of paper . with this kind of carefully constructed process , we believe that a large number of recent gec authors will choose to join the program committee . if you are willing to be a member ( reviewer ) of the program committee , please email gecco @ aaai . org ( note : please do not use a " reply " command to respond to this message since dave goldberg will be out of town for most of june ) and send the following information : ( 1 ) the exact way you want your name listed , ( 2 ) the institutional affiliation you want listed with your name , ( 3 ) your physical mailing address , ( 4 ) your phone number ( for courier address labels ) , ( 5 ) your preferred e-mail address , ( 6 ) which of the six committees you would like to join ( gp / eh , ga / cs , or es / ep , aaa , dna / mc , or rwa ) , and if you have a preference for one of the sub-categories within that committee ( gp and / or eh , ga and / or cs , es and / or ep , alife and / or adaptive behavior and / or agents , dna and / or mc ) . ( 7 ) the title , date , and publication name of a peer-reviewed gec or related paper ( published after january 1 , 1995 ) that qualifies you as a member of the gecco committee ( a complete citation is unnecessary ) . authors who choose to join the gecco program committee will be acknowledged in the conference proceedings as well as in various editions of the calls for papers , the conference brochure , and advertising . physical copies of the papers will be sent to reviewers by ups courier service in late january 1999 , and the review form will be sent by e-mail . reviewers will be given several weeks to read and review the papers . reviews are returned by e-mail directly to the aaai . the reviewer 's name is removed from the message by the aaai before the review is forwarded to the chair of the appropriate track and ( eventually ) the submitting author . if a reviewer 's physical mailing address or e-mail address changes between now and february 1999 , the conference office ( gecco @ aaai . org ) should be notified as soon as possible . although the conference is over a year away , we already have an outstanding lineup of chairs , editors , senior members , and tutorial speakers ( see http : / / www-illigal . ge . uiuc . edu / gecco / ) . the editors / chairs have already been mentioned , but among those joining us as senior committee members are thomas baeck , hans - georg beyer , michael conrad , ingo rechenberg , guenter rudolph , bir bhanu , bill p . buckles , runwei cheng , marco colombetti , herbert dawid , marco dorigo , emanuel falkenauer , mitsuo gen , randy l . haupt , sue ellen haupt , john h . holland , kim f . man , dirk c . mattfeld , zbigniew michalewicz , melanie mitchell , k . s . tang , michael d . vose , david andre , vladan babovic , forrest h bennett iii , tobias blickle , dimitris c . dracopoulos , frank d . francone , andreas geyer - schulz , wolfgang a . halang , hitoshi iba , christian jacob , martin keane , robert e . keller , john r . koza , sam kwong , w . b . langdon , peter nordin , and moshe sipper . among those joining us for an extensive offering of tutorials are rik belew , forrest h bennett iii , lawrence davis , kalyanmoy deb , ken dejong , stephanie forrest , max garzon , tetsuya higuchi , john r . koza , w . b . langdon , jean - arcady meyer , melanie mitchell , randy c . murphy , peter nordin , i . c . parmee , guenter rudolph , hans - paul schwefel , leigh tesfatsion , michael vose , darrell whitley , and stewart wilson . other workshop and tutorial proposals as well as ideas for invited speakers and other activities may be sent to the business committee ( deg @ uiuc . edu or koza @ cs . stanford . edu ) . as active researchers ourselves , we understand that it is difficult to take time away from research for the " administrivia " of the reviewing process . but researchers are often the first to complain when their conferences are guided by " political " not " scientific " considerations . therefore we ask that all qualified committee candidates take this invitation very seriously , and we urge you to step up to the plate to make sure that the technical content of this conference is guided by our field 's active contributors ( qualified reviewers should send an email with the requested information above to gecco @ aaai . org ; please do not use a " reply " command to answer this message ) . names of reviewers who respond before july 1 , 1999 will be published in the first call for papers . moreover , we issue a special invitation to past authors to consider submitting to gecco 99 . although gecco is a new entity it is the combine of the oldest and the two largest , high-quality conferences in the field of genetic and evolutionary computation . with six separate demes for different styles of work and a participatory review process , we expect an unusually author-friendly conference . additionally , past attendance at icga and gp suggests that we should have over 600 researchers in attendance , but we will take steps to make sure that there is plenty of time for face-to - face meeting and interaction as well . in short , we believe that gecco-99 will be a special event for the community of genetic and evolutionary computation . we hope you can take the time to join us in the review process and we welcome your paper submission , but in any event we look forward to seeing you in orlando , july 13-17 , 1999 at gecco-99 . thank you , david e . goldberg ( illinois ) gecco-99 conference chair and business committee and john r . koza ( stanford ) gecco-99 business committee note : again , please do not use a " reply " command to answer this message . instead , respond to gecco @ aaai . org for fastest handling .
