James Cheney

James Cheney is a Personal Chair of Programming Languages and Systems at the University of Edinburgh, working in the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science within the School of Informatics. He leads the Principles of Provenance research group and has been a Turing Fellow from 2018 to 2023.

His educational background includes a PhD in Computer Science from Cornell University (2004), an MS in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University (1998), and a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University (1998).

Cheney's research focuses on the intersection of databases and programming languages, with particular emphasis on data provenance. His work spans several key areas:

• Databases and data provenance
• Programming languages and compilers
• Generic programming
• Logic and automated theorem proving
• Compression and information theory
• XML and related technologies

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on language-integrated query systems, type systems for programming languages, and formal approaches to data provenance. These works often bridge theoretical foundations with practical applications in database systems and programming language design.

Cheney has received several notable awards and recognitions:

• Royal Society University Research Fellowship (2008-2016)
• Turing Fellow (2018-2023)
• ERC Consolidator Grant for the Skye project (2016-2021)
• Google Research Award for Language-integrated provenance

As an advisor, Cheney has supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to positions at institutions including New York University, LSE, University of Southampton, Meta, and others. His research has been supported by various grants from DARPA, EPSRC, AFOSR, EU FP7, and industry partners including Google, Microsoft Research, and Huawei.

Cheney leads the Principles of Provenance group, which conducts fundamental research on data provenance and its applications in security, data curation, and scientific computing. The group has worked on projects including Skye (a programming language for scientific data curation), ADAPT (a DARPA-funded project on advanced persistent threat prevention), and language-integrated provenance systems.