We are soliciting nominations for the 2026 CoRL Early Career Spotlights. These spotlights are given to rising stars in robot learning, and we need your input to identify the best people in the field. Nominations are due by July 30 AoE.
Spotlight speakers must have received a PhD and it is generally recommended NOT to nominate individuals that received their PhD more than 10 years ago or received faculty appointments more than 7 years ago. The committee may consider nominations that do not adhere to these timelines, but for such cases please include factors, such as parental leave (or others), that may influence timing and effort in additional comments block at the end of the form.
Multiple nominations are allowed, but please don't self nominate. The CoRL Early Career spotlight is awarded for independent work and impact after the PhD, so please don't nominate people who just completed their PhD.
We strive for diversity and please keep in mind that research impact can be in many forms.
The spotlights will be selected from the nominations by the Early Career Spotlight Committee. The committee reserves the right to contact distinguished members of our community to gather further information about the candidates, especially when we reach the final stage of the selection.
Deadline: July 30, 2026 (AoE)
Please fill out the nomination form here!
A note for early career researchers, ahead of the July 30 deadline for CoRL 2026 Early Career Keynote Spotlight nominations.
If you’re doing strong independent work in robot learning after your PhD, you may be wondering whether it’s appropriate to let a mentor or senior colleague know you’d welcome a nomination.
It is very much appropriate, and we would encourage it!
You may have noticed in our policies that self-nominations aren’t accepted, because the spotlight is meant to reflect how your work is seen by the community. But reaching out to someone who knows your work well and asking whether they’d consider nominating you is entirely proper, and will help make sure that you don’t go unnominated simply because nobody happened to think of it in time.
So: think of two or three people who know your work, and send a short note to them.
And to senior colleagues and other nominators: thank you in advance for considering these requests from early career folks! And as before, you are of course still welcome to nominate folks who have not asked you.