Bryan Alexander Ford

Prof. Bryan Alexander Ford is an Associate Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), where he leads the Decentralized and Distributed Systems (DEDIS) lab within the School of Computer and Communication Sciences, Department of Computer Science. He also holds teaching positions in SIN (Systems and Networking) and SSC (Security and Software Composition) at EPFL, and serves on the Open Science Strategic Committee. His academic journey includes faculty positions at Yale University following his Ph.D. at MIT.

Dr. Ford's research spans multiple domains with a primary focus on building secure decentralized systems. His work encompasses privacy and anonymous communication systems like Dissent, systems security, blockchain technology, and novel approaches to operating systems for deterministic parallel computing such as Determinator. He has made seminal contributions to parsing theory through his development of Parsing Expression Grammars (PEGs) and packrat parsing algorithms, which provide linear-time parsing with backtracking capabilities. His research also extends to networking protocols including the Unmanaged Internet Architecture and Structured Stream Transport, as well as virtualization technologies like VX32.

Ford's publication record demonstrates a remarkable evolution from foundational work in parsing and programming languages to cutting-edge research in decentralized systems and security. His early career focused on operating systems theory, parsing algorithms, and language design, culminating in influential papers on packrat parsing and PEGs. More recently, his work has shifted toward practical decentralized systems, blockchain technology, and security architectures, while maintaining connections to programming language theory through projects like Matchertext and MinML. This trajectory reflects both continuity in his interest in system architecture and a strategic pivot toward emerging challenges in decentralized computing.

As an educator and mentor, Ford advises multiple PhD students at EPFL through the EDIC program and welcomes prospective students and researchers to join his lab. His teaching includes courses on decentralized systems engineering and technologies for democratic society, reflecting his commitment to both technical rigor and societal impact of computing technologies.