Nadia Polikarpova

Nadia Polikarpova is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego. She leads the Programming Systems group and serves as a member of IFIP Working Group 2.8 on Functional Programming since 2022. Her academic journey includes a PhD from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) under Bertrand Meyer's supervision in 2014, followed by postdoctoral work at MIT CSAIL with Armando Solar-Lezama.

Her research interests center around program synthesis, program verification, and type systems, with a focus on building practical tools that enhance software security and reliability. Polikarpova's work bridges theoretical foundations with real-world applications, particularly in the emerging area of AI-assisted programming.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong trajectory in program synthesis techniques, with increasing integration of machine learning approaches. The research spans from foundational type-driven synthesis methods to practical applications for validating AI-generated code and synthesizing heap-manipulating programs. Her work frequently appears in top-tier programming languages venues including PLDI, POPL, ICFP, and OOPSLA.

• 2020 Sloan Fellow
• 2020 Intel Rising Stars Award
• 2020 NSF CAREER Award
• Distinguished paper awards at PLDI'21, ICFP'20, and POPL'19
• Best paper award at FM'15

Polikarpova actively mentors PhD students and has advised numerous graduates who now work at Microsoft Research, University of Michigan, and various tech companies. She teaches core programming languages courses including CSE 130 and specialized graduate courses on program synthesis (CSE 291). Her service to the community includes program committee roles for major conferences and co-chairing the Haskell conference in 2022.