EATCS Council Election 2021 StatementI'm honoured to have been nominated for the EATCS Council Elections in 2021. I believe that it is strategically critical to strengthen scientific collaborations within Europe, and much remains to be done in this regard. From this point of view and focusing on TCS, EATCS can play an important role in the future as it has already done in the past. One way to achieve this is through strong conferences. In the past I contributed to ICALP and ESA both through PC work (chair of ESA20, PC member of ESA11, ICALP13, ICALP16, ESA16, ESA17) and as an author (7 ICALP papers and 14 ESA papers). Strengthening ESA's reputation with respect to competing non-European conferences such as SODA is a non-trivial task for the future. My commitment to the European TCS community is also witnessed by my membership in the Interest Group on Algorithmic Foundations of Information Technology (IGAFIT), whose objectives are similar in spirit to those of the EATCS, albeit with a narrower focus. One of the main achievements of IGAFIT is the creation of the Highlight of Algorithms conference (HALG), whose basic aim is to create a forum where the European algorithmic community can meet and interact with the top world researchers. I did contribute to HALG as a PC member in 2020 and as the chair in 2021. IGAFIT also actively and successfully contributed to bringing some important TCS conferences to Europe. This includes (COVID-19 permitting) SODA23 in Florence, of which I will be the "local" organizer. |