Cormac Flanagan

Cormac Flanagan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Baskin School of Engineering, University of California Santa Cruz. His research focuses on programming languages, security, and software verification, with particular expertise in concurrent programming, information flow control, and program analysis.

Flanagan's research interests span multiple areas of programming languages and software security. He has made significant contributions to the fields of information flow control, concurrent programming verification, and dynamic analysis techniques. His work on dynamic race detection, particularly the FastTrack algorithm, has been highly influential in the field, earning him a PLDI Most Influential Paper Award. He has also pioneered techniques for secure information flow, including the development of faceted values and secure multi-execution approaches, which earned him a POPL Most Influential Paper Award.

His recent publications demonstrate a continued focus on program verification, with particular attention to concurrent software, JavaScript verification, and serverless computing security. Flanagan's work often bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, resulting in tools like the Anchor Verifier for concurrent software that provide practical verification solutions for real-world programming challenges.

• Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
• POPL Most Influential Paper Award for 'Multiple Facets for Dynamic Information Flow'
• PLDI Most Influential Paper Award for 'FastTrack: Efficient and Precise Dynamic Race Detection'
• PLDI Most Influential Paper Award for 'Extended Static Checking for Java'
• ECOOP 2024 Distinguished Paper Award for 'Mover Logic: A Concurrent Program Logic for Reduction and Rely-Guarantee Reasoning'
• CSF Distinguished Paper Award for 'Transparent IFC Enforcement: Possibility and (In)Efficiency Results'
• PLDI Distinguished Artifact Award for 'BigFoot: Static Check Placement for Dynamic Race Detection'
• ECOOP Best Paper Award for 'RedCard: Redundant Check Elimination for Dynamic Race Detectors'
• ISSTA Distinguished Paper Award for 'Exploiting Purity for Atomicity'
• UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award

Professor Flanagan has advised numerous PhD students who have gone on to successful careers in industry and academia, including positions at Google, Shape Security, and San Jose State University. He serves as Steering Committee Chair for the ACM Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) and as Associate Editor for ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS). His research has been supported by various grants from funding agencies, though specific details are not provided in the available information.

Flanagan leads research projects including the Anchor Verifier for Concurrent Software, data race detection tools, the RoadRunner dynamic analysis infrastructure, and work on cooperable concurrency. His research group at UC Santa Cruz focuses on developing practical techniques for ensuring software reliability and security, with applications to concurrent programming, web security, and cloud computing environments.