IMFD directors are recognized for their work as reviewers at the SIGMOD and PODS 2026 conferences

Juan and Aidan Hogan, directors of Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data, were recognized by members of the review committee of two leading international forums on database research. 

Each year, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) organizes the SIGMOD and PODS conferences to highlight the best research in data management, organization, querying, and fundamentals. PODS ( Symposium on Principles of Database Systems) addresses the theoretical aspects of the discipline and is recognized as the leading international conference in its field, while SIGMOD ( Special Interest Group on Management of Data) covers the more practical and experimental spectrum.

In 2026, both conferences took place from May 31 to June 5 in India, and in the lead-up to the events, two directors of Millennium Institute Foundational Research on Data IMFD) were recognized for their work as peer reviewers of scientific articles. Juan , a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the Catholic University of Chile (IMC) and a researcher and director at the IMFD, was recognized as a Distinguished Program Committee Member at the PODS conference. Meanwhile, Aidan Hogan, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile (DCC) and a researcher and director at the IMFD, received the Outstanding Reviewer distinction at SIGMOD.

Reutter: “We are the filter that ensures the authors’ results are accurate”

The PODS Distinguished PC Member Award recognizes those who have done outstanding work as members of the review committee. Recipients stand out for going above and beyond: they write detailed, high-value reviews for authors, evaluate a significant number of papers, and help resolve the most difficult debates about which papers to accept.

Juan

“Each of these papers is read in great detail by three committee members. After that, the comments are sent back to the authors so they can defend their ideas. Based on the comments and that defense, we have to reach a consensus and make a decision, but beyond whether or not we accept the paper, we serve as the filter responsible for verifying that the authors’ results are correct. So it’s a lot of work,” explains IMFD Director Juan , who also highlights how crucial it is for the institute to be part of these types of committees: “It forces us to stay on top of the research being done around the world. Since we’re so far from where conferences are usually held, we have to maintain a presence in this.”

Hogan: Outstanding Reviewer at SIGMOD

The Outstanding Reviewer award recognizes the quality of the work done by those who review papers submitted to SIGMOD (detailed, well-reasoned, constructive reviews submitted on time) and is presented by the conference Program Committee Chairs (PC Chairs). This year, Aidan Hogan was selected as one of the top 4 reviewers out of the 339 members of the International Program Committee.

The review process is highly rigorous: for the 2025 issue, only 250 of the 1,008 submitted articles were accepted. That year, Hogan reviewed 16 articles over several rounds.

Aidan Hogan

The scholar emphasizes that this recognition brings attention to work that is often done behind the scenes.“Without the work of the reviewers, there would be no conferences like SIGMOD,” he notes, adding that receiving this distinction from the University of Chile places the DCC alongside some of the world’s most prestigious institutions and companies in the field of data management and computing.

Beyond recognition, Hogan warns that the scientific publishing system now faces new challenges due to the growing use of generative artificial intelligence—a tension that was evident at the 2026 SIGMOD conference. “Some unethical practices are becoming increasingly common, such as uploading articles to public AI services to generate automatic reviews, without reading the work carefully and without the authors’ permission,” he explains. For the scholar, the discussion is no longer merely technical: “The scientific community must address existential questions about how to evaluate scientific contributions and how to maximize their impact in a society increasingly dominated by generative AI.”

For the IMFD, these awards reflect the caliber of its researchers and their active participation in the most demanding arenas of international science. Contributing to the assessment of the knowledge that defines the state of the art in a discipline is, in itself, a form of scientific inquiry, and these awards recognize that this contribution also deserves to be highlighted.

Sources: Pods Awards 2026, Sigmod Awards 2026, and DCC Communications