Nate Foster

Nate Foster is a Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and a Visiting Researcher at Jane Street. During 2023-24, he also holds a Visiting Professor position at EPFL in the Data Center Systems Laboratory. His research focuses on Programming Languages and Networking, with significant contributions to formal verification of network data planes and domain-specific language design.

• Awarded NSF CAREER Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, ACM SIGCOMM Rising Star Award, and ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Award
• Active in program committees for conferences like POPL, PLDI, SPLASH, and ICFP

Research Trends: His recent work explores intersections of programming language theory with networking, including symbolic verification tools like KATch, infinite-state network analysis with StacKAT, and active learning frameworks for network automata. He applies formal methods to practical challenges in software-defined networking and hypervisor verification.

Scientific Awards:

• NSF CAREER Award
• Sloan Research Fellowship
• ACM SIGCOMM Rising Star Award
• ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Award

Academic Leadership: Serves as Session Preview Co-Chair for POPL 2024 and organizes workshops like RPLS 2025. He has chaired tutorials on P4 programming and mentored researchers through PLMW programs.