Andrew K. Hirsch

Andrew K. Hirsch is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he co-leads the Databases and Programming Languages group. His work focuses on programming-language foundations for decentralized systems, with particular emphasis on choreographic programming and information-flow security.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cornell University, 2019
• B.S. in Computer Science and Pure Mathematics, The George Washington University

Research Interests:

Dr. Hirsch’s research lies at the intersection of programming languages, concurrency, and security. He develops new language abstractions—most notably choreographic programming—that let developers write a single, centralized description of how distributed components cooperate, after which the compiler automatically produces deadlock-free code for each participant. Complementarily, he studies information-flow control to ensure that sensitive data cannot leak through program behavior, even in higher-order and effectful settings.

Recent Publications & Trends:

Across 2022–2025, his work has consistently advanced both theoretical foundations and practical tool support for choreographic languages (e.g., Pirouette, Choret, λQC) while simultaneously deepening the theory of information-flow security with machine-verified proofs. The publications map to premier venues such as POPL, OOPSLA, ECOOP, and JFP, underscoring high impact in the PL and security communities.

Current & Former Students:

• Current PhD advisees: Michael Piskozub, Keith Allen, Mason Lary, Alexander Bohosian, Gianna Bossoreale
• Current undergraduate researchers: Alex Doyoon Kim, Julia Montouri
• Recent alumni: Ethan Canton, Tiffany Cai, Vamsi Krishna Bellam, Vincent Chan, Frank (Feng-Mao) Tsai

Active Projects & Funding:

• Open Choreographies via Session Types – NSF SHF:SMALL award (2025–)
• Pirouette Language & Compiler – functional choreographic language with Coq-verified guarantees
• Choret – Racket-based DSL for choreographic programming via macros

Contact & Web Presence:

Office: 213 Capen Hall, Buffalo NY 14260-1609
Phone: (716) 645-0247
Email: akhirsch@buffalo.edu
Web: https://akhirsch.science | Google Scholar