Myra Cohen

Myra Cohen is a Professor and the Lanh and Oanh Nguyen Chair in Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University. Previously, she held the position of Susan J. Rosowski Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she was a member of the ESQuaReD software engineering research group. She serves on the ASE Steering Committee and has held leadership roles including general chair of ASE 2015 and program co-chair for ICST 2019 and ESEC/FSE 2020.

Dr. Cohen earned her Ph.D. from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, her M.S. from the University of Vermont, and her B.S. from the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Her academic journey includes lecturing positions at both the University of Auckland and University of Vermont during her graduate studies.

Her research spans several interconnected domains focused on software quality and assurance. A significant portion of her work addresses software testing challenges in highly-configurable systems, where she applies search-based techniques and combinatorial designs to create efficient test suites. More recently, her research has expanded into innovative areas including software testing for biological systems, quantum computing applications, and security testing through genetic improvement techniques. Her work demonstrates a consistent theme of addressing complex verification challenges through creative application of formal methods and automated techniques.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a growing focus on emerging domains including quantum software testing, molecular/biological computing systems, and assurance cases for safety-critical systems. She has increasingly incorporated AI techniques, particularly large language models, into traditional software engineering problems while maintaining her foundational work in configurable systems and metamorphic testing.

• NSF CAREER award recipient
• AFOSR Young Investigator Award recipient
• ACM Distinguished Scientist
• Recipient of 4 ACM Distinguished Paper awards

Dr. Cohen has served as chair and committee member for numerous conferences including ASE, ICSE, ISSTA, ESEC/FSE, and ICST. She has mentored numerous students through the doctoral symposiums and student research competitions at major software engineering conferences. Her research has been supported by significant grants including those from NSF and AFOSR. She leads the LaVA-OPs (Laboratory for Variability-Aware Assurance and Testing of Organic Programs) research group at Iowa State University, which focuses on testing challenges in biological and organic computing systems.