| ICDM Tao Li Award |
| ICDM Tao Li Award was established in December 2017. The purpose of the award is to honor Professor Tao Li´s life and accomplishment, and reward excellent early career researchers (individuals either in a doctoral program or who have received a doctoral degree less than 10 years prior to receiving the Award) in the field of data mining and machine learning. Each year, starting from 2018, the ICDM steering committee will form an ad-hoc award committee to select one awardee to receive the Tao Li award. The award, worth $2,000 in check, for one awardee, will be given out once a year at the annual IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM). The Tao Li Award was established through public donations, and is managed by the IEEE ICDM steering committee and the FAU Foundation. |
| ICDM Tao Li Award Winners |
| Year | Winners | Affiliation | PhD Deg. Year | Citations (h-index) |
| 2025 Award Winner |  Dr. Jundong Li | University of Virginia, USA | June, 2019 | 18,700+ (h-63) * |
| 2024 Award Winner |  Dr. Shirui Pan | Griffith University, Australia | November, 2015 | 32,000+ (h-69) * |
| 2023 Award Winner |  Dr. Danai Koutra | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA | August, 2015 | 7,900+ (h-36) * |
| 2022 Award Winner |  Dr. Evangelos (Vagelis) Papalexakis | University of California, Riverside, USA | August, 2016 | 5,300+ (h-33) * |
| 2021 Award Winner |  Dr. Jiliang Tang | Michigan State University, USA | May, 2015 | 18,500+ (h-65) * |
| 2020 Award Winner |  Dr. Jing Gao | Purdue University, USA | Dec., 2011 | 9,700+ (h-51) * |
| 2019 Award Winner |  Dr. Hanghang Tong | University of Illinois-Champaign, USA | Dec., 2009 | 10,000+ (h-44) * |
| 2018 Award Winner |  Dr. Jilles Vreeken | Helmholtz Center for Info. Security, Germany | Dec., 2009 | 2,700+ (h-28) * |
* citations and h-index are based on the time of application (not the current).
| 2025 Tao Li Award Selection Criteria |
- The awardee is either in a doctoral program or has received a doctoral degree less than 10 years prior to Nov 12 2025.
- The awardee has made significant achievement in the area of data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
- The awardee has demonstrated significant impact in research contribution, leadership, and services.
- The awardee has obtained a strong reference from a world leading researcher in the field.
- Commits to attend the ICDM-2025 ceremony on site to receive the award (registration fee is waived if only attending the award ceremony).
| 2025 Tao Li Award Submission Deadline |
October 5 2025 |
| 025 Tao Li Award Committee |
| Dr. Stella Batalama (FAU Foundation Delegate) Dr. Wei Ding (U. of Massachusetts Boston, ICDM-2025 PC Co-Chair) Dr. Christos Faloutsos (CMU, Committee Member) Dr. Jiawei Han (UIUC, Committee Member) Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham (UT Dallas, Committee Member) Dr. Jilles Vreeken (CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, ICDM-2025 PC Co-Chair) Dr. Xindong Wu (Hefei University of Technology, ICDM Steering Committee Chair) Dr. Xingquan Zhu (FAU, Award Committee Chair, not to vote unless tie) |
| Additional Information |
Any inquiries and questions about this year´s Tao Li award should be addressed to: ICDM.Tao.Li.Award.Committee@gmail.com.For more information about the Tao Li Award or ICDM-2025, please access IEEE ICDM-2025 website. |