Xavier Denis is a researcher in formal methods and program verification, recently completing his PhD at Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles (LMF) under Université Paris-Saclay. He developed Creusot , a deductive verifier for Rust programs, and will join the Proof Methodology group at ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral researcher under Prof. Peter Mueller. Affiliation: Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, ENS Paris-Saclay, INRIA Research interests: Program Verification, Ownership, Programs & Types His contributions include: Co-chairing the Student Volunteer subcommittee at POPL 2024 Authoring a PLDI 2022 paper on functional verification of Rust programs with unsafe code
Ohad Kammar is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh , actively contributing to programming language theory, denotational semantics, and algebraic effects. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations. Research Themes : Type-driven development, concurrency, probabilistic programming, normalization algorithms, and algebraic effects. Conference Involvement : Committee member in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion , Student Research Competition , and LAFI tracks at POPL; program committee roles in ICFP, APLAS, PEPM, and HOPE. Publications : Focus on denotational semantics, effect handlers, relaxed memory concurrency, and dependently-typed probabilistic models.
Nate Foster is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and a Visiting Researcher at Jane Street . During 2023-24, he also holds a Visiting Professor position at EPFL in the Data Center Systems Laboratory. His research focuses on Programming Languages and Networking , with significant contributions to formal verification of network data planes and domain-specific language design. Awarded NSF CAREER Award , Sloan Research Fellowship , ACM SIGCOMM Rising Star Award , and ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Award Active in program committees for conferences like POPL, PLDI, SPLASH, and ICFP Research Trends : His recent work explores intersections of programming language theory with networking, including symbolic verification tools like KATch , infinite-state network analysis with StacKAT , and active learning frameworks for network automata. He applies formal methods to practical challenges in software-defined networking and hypervisor verification. Scientific Awards : NSF CAREER Award Sloan Research Fellowship ACM SIGCOMM Rising Star Award ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Award Academic Leadership : Serves as Session Preview Co-Chair for POPL 2024 and organizes workshops like RPLS 2025. He has chaired tutorials on P4 programming and mentored researchers through PLMW programs.
Conrad Watt is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research focuses on the formal verification and mechanisation of WebAssembly, particularly its concurrency and security features. He previously held a Research Fellow position at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. His work bridges theoretical formal methods with practical systems implementation, contributing to standards proposals for WebAssembly's evolution. He co-chairs the W3C WebAssembly Community Group and has served on program committees for POPL, PLDI, and SPLASH. Education: PhD in Computer Science (University of Cambridge, 2021), supervised by Peter Sewell Research interests include mechanisation of programming language specifications, relaxed-memory concurrency, and domain-specific languages for formal semantics. His projects like SpecTec aim to unify WebAssembly's specification across documentation, implementations, and mechanisations. Selected contributions to WebAssembly include: Designing its initial concurrency specification Developing WasmRef-Isabelle as a verified interpreter and fuzzing oracle Creating Iris-Wasm for modular program verification Scientific recognition includes: ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award Honorable Mention EAPLS Best Dissertation Award He advises PhD students in WebAssembly-related topics and leads collaborations with industrial partners like Wasmtime. Current research explores irreducible control flow in WebAssembly, richer concurrency models, and performance optimization through mechanised specifications.
Alexandra Silva is a Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University's College of Engineering. She joined Cornell as faculty in 2021 after previously serving as a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Professor of Algebra, Semantics, and Computation at University College London. Her research spans programming languages, formal verification, and theoretical computer science, with particular focus on Kleene Algebra with Tests (KAT), probabilistic programming, and automata theory. She has held numerous leadership roles in major programming languages conferences including POPL, PLDI, and ICFP. Dr. Silva completed her PhD at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in Amsterdam under the supervision of Jan Rutten and Marcello Bonsangue, with her thesis entitled "Kleene coalgebra" defended in December 2010. Prior to her PhD, she was an undergraduate student at University of Minho in Portugal, where she completed a 5-year Mathematics and Computer Science degree in May 2006. Her research focuses on the modular development of specification languages and algorithms for models of computations, often from the unifying perspective offered by coalgebra. She has made significant contributions to Kleene Algebra with Tests, probabilistic programming semantics, network verification, and automata learning. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical verification tools, particularly in the domain of Software-Defined Networking where her NetKAT framework has gained significant attention. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward unifying frameworks for program verification, particularly through her development of Outcome Logic which provides foundations for both correctness and incorrectness reasoning. Her work increasingly integrates probabilistic and concurrent aspects of programming languages, with applications to network verification and security. The NetKAT ecosystem remains a central theme, with extensions to infinite state verification, symbolic execution, and learning-based approaches. Distinguished paper award for Guarded Kleene algebra with tests: verification of uninterpreted programs in nearly linear time (POPL 2020) Dr. Silva advises a large research group with numerous PhD students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers. Her group has produced significant work in programming languages theory, verification, and applications to networking. She has secured substantial research funding through various grants that support her work on formal methods for network verification and probabilistic programming. Her mentoring approach emphasizes both theoretical depth and practical impact, with many of her students moving to prestigious academic and industry positions. Her research group, spanning both Cornell University and University College London, focuses on developing theoretical foundations for programming languages with practical applications in network verification, probabilistic systems, and program analysis. The group maintains active collaborations with researchers at CWI, University of Oxford, and other leading institutions in programming languages and formal methods.
Steve Zdancewic is the Schlein Family President's Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His research spans programming languages, computer security, formal verification, and type theory, with significant contributions to LLVM verification, program synthesis, and quantum programming. He co-leads Penn's Programming Languages Research Group with Benjamin Pierce and Stephanie Weirich. His research focuses on: Programming language foundations (type theory, linear logic, semantics) Formal verification (Coq, LLVM, interaction trees) Security (information-flow control, memory safety) Emerging paradigms (quantum programming, secure distributed systems) Publication trends reveal deep engagement with formal methods (67%), programming language design (20%), and systems security (13%), primarily using Coq for mechanized verification. Recent works demonstrate increased focus on parallel/streaming computation and synthesis techniques. Awards Distinguished Paper Awards (ECOOP 2023, POPL 2020) Schlein Family President's Distinguished Professor (2021) Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award (2018) IEEE MICRO Top Picks (2013) Sloan Fellowship (2009-2010) NSF CAREER Award (2004) Best Paper Awards (SOSP 2001, ICFP 1999) Research Leadership Directs multiple NSF-funded projects including DeepSpec (verified systems infrastructure), Vellvm (LLVM semantics), and ExCAPE (program synthesis). Advises 5 PhD students and 31 former advisees/postdocs. Served as General Chair for POPL 2025 and associate chair for PLDI/ICFP/POPL. Infrastructure Leads the Vellvm project developing Coq-based LLVM semantics, the Interaction Trees framework for recursive/impure programs, and Qwire for quantum circuit verification. Maintains active collaborations with Galois Inc. and INRIA.
Francisco Ferreira is a Lecturer (tenure track, equivalent to Assistant Professor) in the Department of Computer Science at Royal Holloway, University of London. Previously, he was a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, working with Professor Nobuko Yoshida. Dr. Ferreira's primary research interests include type systems and formal logic, formal meta-theory, concurrency and process calculi, session types, temporal logic and other modal logics, and principled approaches to programming. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in the realm of communication protocols and programming language design. His publication record demonstrates a strong focus on session types and their applications, with a trajectory moving from foundational theoretical work to practical implementations. Over the past decade, his research has increasingly emphasized the verification and implementation of communication protocols, resulting in tools and frameworks that ensure communication safety in distributed systems. Scientific Awards: ICFP'12 Student Research Competition First Place Dr. Ferreira has teaching experience in programming languages and paradigms, having served as both a lecturer and teaching assistant for COMP 302. His industrial experience includes Haskell consulting for Erudite Software, game programming for Bluberi, and developing mission-critical software for Motorola Argentina in the telecom industry.
Andrew K. Hirsch is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, SUNY , Department of Computer Science and Engineering. He leads the Databases and Programming Languages group and focuses on programming languages for decentralized systems, particularly choreographic programming and information-flow security. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science (2019) from Cornell University, supervised by Ross Tate on computational effects. B.S. in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics from The George Washington University. Research Interests: His work centers on choreographic programming, a paradigm ensuring deadlock-free concurrent systems, and information-flow security for decentralized applications. He also explores computational effects and type systems in programming language theory. Publications: Recent work includes advancements in process polymorphism (OOPSLA 2025), type-level polymorphism (PLACES 2025), and security definitions for higher-order declassification (OOPSLA 2023). Students: Doctoral: Michael Piskozub, Keith Allen Mason Masters: Alexander Bohosian, Gianna Bossoreale Undergraduate: Alex Doyoon Kim, Julia Montouri Recent Alumni: Ethan Canton, Tiffany Cai, Vamsi Krishna Bellam, Vincent Chan, Frank (Feng-Mao) Tsai Projects: Leads initiatives such as Choret (open choreographies) and The Pirouette Language and Compiler , which translate choreographic programs into concurrent system implementations.
Alberto Momigliano is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science , University of Milan, Italy. His research focuses on formal methods, proof theory, and logical frameworks in programming languages. He has contributed extensively to property-based testing, coinductive proofs, and mechanized metatheory. Research Interests : Formal verification of programming languages Higher-order abstract syntax Logical frameworks (Hybrid, Beluga) Proof theory and type systems Property-based testing Coinductive methods Recent Articles explore substructural contexts, proof outlines for testing, and coinductive formalizations. His scientific awards include the Distinguished Paper Award at CPP 2025. Academic Activities : Program Committee Member at CPP 2024 and CPP 2025 Organized Logic Colloquium 2023 in Milan Steering Committee member of PPDP Involved in mechanizing metatheory with Coq automation
Michael Norrish is an Associate Professor at the School of Computing, Australian National University (ANU) , specializing in formal methods, programming language semantics, and interactive theorem proving. His career spans roles at NICTA, Data61, and ANU, with a focus on mechanised mathematics and verified systems. PhD in Computer Science (University of Cambridge, 1999) Undergraduate degree from Victoria University of Wellington His research bridges interactive theorem-proving (ITP) systems like HOL4 with real-world systems verification, particularly in programming languages and compilers. He leads the CakeML project, developing a verified compiler for functional languages. His work intersects formal verification with practical system design, including projects on reproducibility debt in scientific software and verified processors. Recent publications highlight verified compilation techniques, reproducibility challenges, and Kolmogorov complexity formalization. He actively participates in conference program committees (e.g., CPP, PLDI) and promotes trustworthy systems development through tools like HOL4. Current affiliations: ANU, CakeML Project, Trustworthy Systems Research Group (UNSW) Collaborations: Chalmers University (postdoc opportunities), seL4 microkernel ecosystem
Aymeric Fromherz is a researcher at Inria Paris, focusing on formal methods for secure systems. He leads projects in Rust verification, high-assurance cryptography, and formalization of computational legal texts. Education includes a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (co-advised by Bryan Parno and Corina Păsăreanu) and degrees from École Normale Supérieure. His research spans Rust verification (via Aeneas toolchain), verified cryptographic primitives , and computational law (through the Catala language). Recent publications address memory allocators, borrow-checking, and legal ambiguity detection. Major Scientific Awards : Distinguished Artifact Award (CAV 2025) Best Tool Paper Award (ESOP 2024) ACM SIGSAC Dissertation Award (2021) A.G. Milnes Dissertation Award (2021) He contributes to conferences like POPL, ICFP, and CPP, and participates in the Everest Project. The Prosecco Team at Inria Paris supports his research on formal methods and security.
Elvira Patricia Pino Blanco is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Barcelona East School of Engineering, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). She is a member of the ALBCOM research group (Algorithms, Bioinformatics, Complexity and Formal Methods) and has an extensive publication record spanning over two decades. Her research interests focus on formal methods in computer science, particularly in graph theory, logic programming, and database systems. She has made significant contributions to navigational logics for graphical structures, graph databases, and model synchronization using triple graph grammars. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in software engineering and data management. Her publication trends show a consistent focus on graph-based approaches to computational problems, with recent work emphasizing logical approaches to graph databases and navigational query languages. She has published in high-impact venues including Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming, Theoretical Computer Science, and various international conferences. Professor Pino Blanco has been involved in numerous competitive R&D projects related to algorithmics, bioinformatics, and formal methods. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary connections between theoretical computer science and practical applications in data management and software engineering. She is affiliated with the ALBCOM research group which focuses on algorithmics, bioinformatics, complexity theory, and formal methods. This group represents a vibrant research community working at the intersection of theoretical computer science and practical applications.
Ángel Alonso-Cortés Manteca is a distinguished linguistics scholar affiliated with the Faculty of Philology at Complutense University of Madrid. With a career spanning from 1976 to 2022, he has established himself as a significant contributor to Spanish linguistics, historical linguistics, and theoretical linguistics. His academic profile includes 44 journal articles, 8 collective works, 13 reviews, 9 books, and direction of 3 doctoral theses, reflecting his substantial scholarly output and mentorship. His research interests span multiple dimensions of linguistic study, with particular emphasis on Spanish phonology, syntax, and historical development. He has made notable contributions to Basque language studies, examining its historical documentation and relationship with Spanish. His work on language evolution, from theoretical explorations of language origins to practical analyses of contemporary phenomena like Spanglish, demonstrates both breadth and depth in his scholarly approach. Alonso-Cortés Manteca has also engaged critically with major linguistic theories, from Saussurean structuralism to Chomskyan generative grammar, as evidenced by his publications examining these frameworks. His publication record shows consistent scholarly activity across five decades, with recent work including the 2022 RLD Corpus study of linguistic resources in Spanish law, demonstrating continued relevance and engagement with contemporary linguistic issues. His directed doctoral theses on Spanish phonology, spoken Spanish discourse patterns, and Spanish temporality reflect his influence on emerging scholars in the field. As an academic, Alonso-Cortés Manteca has contributed significantly to linguistic education through his textbooks, particularly the multiple editions of his "Lingüística" series, which have served as foundational resources for Spanish linguistics students. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical language analysis, making complex linguistic concepts accessible while maintaining scholarly rigor.
