معرفی
Tom Van Cutsem is an Associate Professor of computer science at KU Leuven in Belgium, where he is affiliated with the Distributed and Secure Software (DistriNet) research group within the Faculty of Engineering Science and Department of Computer Science. He also maintains an affiliation with Nokia Bell Labs, where he previously served as a Research Department Head with research interests in decentralized systems, IoT, stream processing and machine learning for software engineering. His academic career includes a previous position as Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Brussel from 2010 to 2014.
Dr. Van Cutsem holds a PhD in Computer Science from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His educational background has provided the foundation for his expertise in distributed systems, programming languages, and software security.
His primary research interests span Distributed Systems, Software Security, Blockchain, and Programming Language Design. With the DistriNet research group, he pursues work on decentralized systems, IoT, stream processing, and machine learning for software engineering. His research focuses on making distributed systems more secure, reliable, and accessible, with particular attention to blockchain technology and Web3 infrastructure. He is a founding member of IFIP WG 2.16 on Programming Language Design.
His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on blockchain security and infrastructure, with numerous papers on Web3, smart contracts, and decentralized systems from 2023-2025. His work addresses critical challenges in blockchain validation, smart contract security, and Web3 infrastructure, reflecting his commitment to making decentralized systems more secure and accessible to low-resource participants. Several of his current projects focus on secure middleware for smart contracts and scalable infrastructure for self-sovereign applications.
Dr. Van Cutsem supervises PhD students including Weihong Wang, with whom he has co-authored multiple recent publications. He is currently leading several research projects including SODISA (Scalable Software Development and Infrastructure for Self-sovereign Applications), Secure Sandboxing for WebAssembly-based Smart Contracts, and Programming languages for privacy-preserving and verifiable computing, with funding extending through 2028-2029.
He leads research within the Distributed and Secure Software (DistriNet) group at KU Leuven, which focuses on creating secure and dependable distributed systems. His team works on cutting-edge challenges in blockchain infrastructure, smart contract security, and decentralized application development, with connections to both academic and industrial partners including Nokia Bell Labs.
