Ten years after the first CP conference, the CP research area was mature enough to begin to identify and honour the most influential people in the field. In 2015, the Executive Committee of the Association for Constraint Programming has decided to establish an annual "ACP award for Research Excellence in constraint programming", whose purpose is to celebrate those CP researchers who have made exceptional and very influential research contributions to CP with their work.
The award, in the form of a certificate, is presented at the CP conference, where the winning researcher will be invited to give a plenary talk. The award includes free registration for the conference.
The past recipients of this award are as follows:
| Year | Recipient | Nominated by |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Mats Carlsson | Nicolas Beldiceanu, Pierre Flener, Mikael Zayenz Lagerkvist, Justin Pearson and Magnus Rattfeldt |
| 2021 | John Hooker | Pascal Van Hentenryck and Willem-Jan van Hoeve |
| 2019 | Peter James Stuckey | Christian Schulte |
| 2017 | Nicolas Beldiceanu | Mats Carlsson, Pierre Flener, Pascal Van Hentenryck |
| 2015 | Toby Walsh | Christian Bessiere |
| 2013 | Jean-Charles Regin | Michel Rueher, Laurent Perron, Pierre Schaus |
| 2011 | Patrick Prosser | Ian Gent, Barbara Smith, Toby Walsh |
| 2009 | Alan Mackworth | Eugene C. Freuder |
| 2008 | Alain Colmerauer | Frederic Benhamou |
| 2007 | Rina Dechter | Javier Larrosa |
| 2006 | Pascal Van Hentenryck | Laurent Michel |
| 2005 | Eugene C. Freuder | ACP EC |