Since 2014, WG hands out awards for the best paper and/or best student paper (student papers can have non-student co-authors, but the main work was done by co-authors that were students at the time of submission). Both awards are sponsored by Springer.
| 2023 | Best paper | Paul Jungeblut, Samuel Schneider, Torsten Ueckerdt: Cops and Robber – When Capturing is not Surrounding, WG 2023: 403-416, DOI. |
|---|---|---|
| Best student paper | Falko Hegerfeld, Stefan Kratsch: Tight Algorithms for Connectivity Problems Parameterized by Modular-Treewidth, WG 2023: 388-402, DOI. | |
| 2022 | Best paper | Csaba D. Tóth: Minimum Weight Euclidean (1+ε )-Spanners. WG 2022: 439-452, DOI |
| Best student paper | David Dekker, Bart M. P. Jansen: Kernelization for Feedback Vertex Set via Elimination Distance to a Forest. WG 2022: 158-172, DOI | |
| 2021 | Best paper and best student paper | Huib Donkers, Bart M. P. Jansen: Preprocessing to Reduce the Search Space: Antler Structures for Feedback Vertex Set. WG 2021: 1-14, DOI |
| 2020 | Best paper | Jesper Nederlof, Michal Pilipczuk, Céline M. F. Swennenhuis, Karol Wegrzycki: Hamiltonian Cycle Parameterized by Treedepth in Single Exponential Time and Polynomial Space. WG 2020: 27-39, DOI |
| Best student paper | Sriram Bhyravarapu, Subrahmanyam Kalyanasundaram: Combinatorial Bounds for Conflict-Free Coloring on Open Neighborhoods. WG 2020: 1-13, DOI | |
| 2019 | Best paper | Daniel Gonçalves: 3-Colorable Planar Graphs Have an Intersection Segment Representation Using 3 Slopes. WG 2019: 351-363, DOI |
| Best student paper | Edin Husic, Martin Milanič: A Polynomial-Time Algorithm for the Independent Set Problem in P10, C4, C6 -Free Graphs. WG 2019: 271-284, DOI | |
| 2018 | Best paper | Édouard Bonnet, Paweł Rzążewski: Optimality Program in Segment and String Graphs. WG 2018: 79-90, DOI |
| Best student paper | Jelco M. Bodewes, Hans L. Bodlaender, Gunther Cornelissen, Marieke van der Wegen: Recognizing Hyperelliptic Graphs in Polynomial Time. WG 2018: 52-64, DOI | |
| 2017 | Best paper | Yijia Chen, Martin Grohe, Bingkai Lin: The Hardness of Embedding Grids and Walls. WG 2017: 180-192, DOI |
| Best student papers | Steven Chaplick, Martin Toepfer, Jan Voborník, Peter Zeman: On H-Topological Intersection Graphs. WG 2017: 167-179, DOI | |
| Dusan Knop, Martin Koutecký, Tomás Masarík, Tomás Toufar: Simplified Algorithmic Metatheorems Beyond MSO: Treewidth and Neighborhood Diversity. WG 2017: 344-357, DOI | ||
| 2016 | Best paper | Emile Ziedan, Deepak Rajendraprasad, Rogers Mathew, Martin Charles Golumbic, Jérémie Dusart: Induced Separation Dimension. WG 2016: 121-132, DOI |
| Best student paper | Linda Kleist: Drawing Planar Graphs with Prescribed Face Areas. WG 2016: 158-170, DOI | |
| 2015 | Best paper | Martin Grohe, Stephan Kreutzer, Roman Rabinovich, Sebastian Siebertz, Konstantinos S. Stavropoulos: Colouring and Covering Nowhere Dense Graphs. WG 2015: 325-338, DOI |
| Best student paper | no award was made | |
| 2014 | Best paper | no award was made |
| Best student paper | Felix Joos: A Characterization of Mixed Unit Interval Graphs. WG 2014: 324-335, DOI |