Viktor Kunčak

Viktor Kunčak is an Associate Professor with tenure at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the School of Computer and Communication Sciences. He leads the Laboratory for Automated Reasoning and Analysis (LARA) and has been at EPFL since 2007 after completing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

His educational background includes:

• PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2007

Professor Kunčak's research focuses on bridging the gap between human goals and computational realizations through program synthesis, verification, and automated reasoning. His work has significant applications in software development, formal methods, and programming languages. He is particularly known for developing practical tools like Leon and Stainless that implement theoretical advances in automated reasoning.

His recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on advancing program synthesis techniques, verification frameworks, and formal methods. The research trajectory shows progression from foundational theoretical work to practical applications and tools that can be used by developers. Many papers focus on making verification and synthesis more accessible and efficient for real-world programming tasks.

His notable scientific achievements include:

• ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award for work on automated testing
• European Research Council (ERC) Grant of 1.5M EUR (2012)
• Communications of the ACM Research Highlight for a PLDI paper

Professor Kunčak has supervised 13 completed PhD theses and teaches courses on functional and parallel programming, compilers, and verification at EPFL. He has also co-taught a popular MOOC on Parallel Programming that reached over 100,000 learners worldwide. His research has been supported by significant funding including a 5-year ERC grant. He has served in leadership roles for major conferences including as program co-chair for FMCAD 2014 and VMCAI 2012.

He leads the Laboratory for Automated Reasoning and Analysis (LARA) at EPFL, which develops tools like Stainless for program verification. The lab has established an international presence through collaborations including a European COST Action to establish standardized formats for verification and synthesis (Rich Model Toolkit).