Frank Pfenning

Frank Pfenning is a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, affiliated with the School of Computer Science and Computer Science Department. He has served in leadership roles including Director of Graduate Programs (2004-2008), Associate Dean for Graduate Education (2009-2010), and Head of the Computer Science Department (2013-2018).

• Education: PhD in Mathematics (Carnegie Mellon University, 1987), Fulbright Scholar, Technical University Darmstadt.

Research Interests span programming languages, logic and type theory, logical frameworks, automated deduction, and trustworthiness in computing. His work on session types, linear logic, and substructural logics explores concurrency and communication safety. Current projects include Session Types (message-passing and shared memory concurrency) and C0 (safe imperative programming education).

Recent Publications emphasize substructural type systems, adjoint logic, parametric subtyping, and the theoretical foundations of session types. These works bridge programming language design, formal verification, and distributed systems security.

Awards:

• Herbert A. Simon Award for Teaching Excellence (School of Computer Science, 2002)
• Distinguished Paper Award (POPL 2024)

Advising: Advised 29 PhD theses. Leadership: ACM SIGLOG Chair (2019-2022), LICS Steering Committee (2018-2023), CADE Trustee/President (1998-2004), CRA Committee on Best Practices (2013-2014).

Labs and Teams: Collaborated on projects like Session Types (NSF/Mozilla support), C0 (MSR/Google-funded for teaching safe C), and foundational work in logical frameworks (Twelf).