Each year there is most one awardee, who must have contributed significantly to promote machine learning in the Geo-regions covered by ACML, by research and service. This years awadee is Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) Thomas G. Dietterich of School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Oregon State University. He was a founding member of the steering committee of ACML: he participated the first edition of ACML conference (2009, in Nanjing), and participated in the inaugural steering committee meeting at Nanjing during ACML 2009.