Conor McBride

Conor McBride is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. His academic career has focused on the intersection of functional programming, type theory, and programming language design, with significant contributions to the field of dependent types.

McBride's research interests center around Functional Programming, particularly Haskell, and Type Theory. He is best known for co-designing Epigram, an interactive dependently typed functional language developed with James McKinna. His work extends to differential calculus with datatypes, ornaments, and SHE (Kleisli arrows of outrageous fortune). He has made substantial contributions to the theoretical foundations of dependent types, including work on observational equality and algebraic ornaments.

His publication record shows a consistent output of high-impact research, with recent work focusing on practical applications of type systems in scientific computing, metrology, and operating systems. The 15 most recent publications demonstrate a progression from theoretical foundations to increasingly practical applications of type theory, with notable works on dimensional analysis, measurement units, and type systems for scientific software.

McBride has collaborated extensively with researchers including Thorsten Altenkirch, Edwin Brady, James Chapman, Peter Morris, Nicolas Oury, Wouter Swierstra, Lucas Dixon, Peter Hancock, Andres Löh, and Ross Paterson, reflecting his active role in the programming languages research community.

His work bridges theoretical computer science with practical programming concerns, making dependent types more accessible and applicable to real-world problems. The evolution of his research from foundational type theory to applications in scientific computing demonstrates both theoretical depth and practical relevance.