David C. Parkes receives John McCarthy Award

David C. Parkes, the John A. Paulson Dean and George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been awarded the 2026 John McCarthy Award from the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI).

The John McCarthy Award, named for one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence, recognizes mid-career researchers who have built a track record of research excellence in AI and made significant contributions to the field.

Parkes was recognized for his “foundational contributions to the interface of AI and economics, specifically for pioneering algorithmic mechanisms that ensure efficiency, fairness, and incentive alignment in high-stakes multi-agent environments.”

A member of the Harvard faculty since 2001, Parkes founded the EconCS research group at SEAS, which conducts research at the intersection of economics and computer science, exploring artificial intelligence and algorithms for social and economic impact. 

A leader in multi-agent AI, market design, and microeconomic theory, Parkes’ early research contributed to the design of combinatorial auctions — procedures for selling complex packages of goods. His work has contributed to advances in decentralized mechanism design and mechanism design in dynamic environments, where resources, participants, and information vary over time. He has pioneered the use of machine learning for the automated design of economic systems.

Parkes is the fourth dean to lead SEAS and the first computer scientist in the position. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

Previous winners of the John McCarthy Award include Milind Tambe, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science.