Justin Hsu

Justin Hsu - Academic Profile

Justin Hsu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University, where he returned in August 2025 after a sabbatical at Imperial College London (2024–2025). His academic journey includes roles as an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2018–2024), a postdoc at Cornell University, and a position in the Programming Principles, Logic, and Verification Group at University College London. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania (2017), advised by Benjamin Pierce.

Research Focus

Hsu's research centers on formal verification of algorithms, particularly those involving randomization, differential privacy, and probabilistic guarantees. He designs methods to ensure programs meet quantitative properties such as statistical accuracy, incentive compatibility, and algorithmic stability. His work bridges theoretical computer science with applications in programming languages, privacy, and numerical analysis.

Awards & Recognition

• 2024 EATCS Presburger Award (early-career theoretical computer science)
• 2024 Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship
• 2020 NSF CAREER Award
• 2018 ACM SIGPLAN John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award

Teaching & Service

Hsu has taught courses such as Category Theory for Computer Scientists, Foundations of Probabilistic Programming, and Security and Privacy in Data Science. He has served on program committees for top venues like POPL, PLDI, and CAV.

Key Contributions

His recent work includes developing verification frameworks for randomized algorithms (e.g., Bean: A Language for Backward Error Analysis), formal methods for symmetry properties, and tools for differential privacy. He also explores applications in fair division (e.g., Cutting the Cake: A Language for Fair Division).