Will Crichton

Will Crichton is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Brown University, where he leads the Cognitive Engineering Lab. His academic journey includes a PhD from Stanford University (2022) advised by Pat Hanrahan and Maneesh Agrawala, and a BS from Carnegie Mellon University (2016). Prior to his current position, he completed a postdoc at Brown with Shriram Krishnamurthi.

• PhD, Stanford University (2022)
• BS, Carnegie Mellon University (2016)

Crichton's research uniquely bridges programming language theory and cognitive psychology, focusing on making programming more usable, learnable, and powerful. His work spans three interconnected domains: cognitive theories of computational abstractions, technical foundations of technical communication, and radical teaching tools. He develops systems like program slicers (Flowistry), document languages (Nota), and type system visualizers (Aquascope), with his Rust research having been adopted by over 100,000 developers worldwide.

His publication record reveals a consistent focus on the intersection of programming languages and human factors. Recent work shows increasing emphasis on Rust programming language tools (2022-2025), document representation systems (2021-2024), and educational methodologies for programming language learning (2023-2024), demonstrating how theoretical programming language concepts can be made practically accessible to developers.

• Distinguished Paper award for Profiling Programming Language Learning (OOPSLA 2024)
• SIGPLAN Research Highlight for A Grounded Conceptual Model for Ownership Types in Rust (OOPSLA 2023)

Crichton actively contributes to the Rust ecosystem through tools like Flowistry (a program slicer for Rust) and an experimental Rust textbook. His teaching philosophy emphasizes grounded approaches to programming language education, as evidenced by his work on the Rust Book Experiment. He has presented his research at venues including Jane Street (2025), P99 CONF (2024), and IWACO (2024), demonstrating practical applications of his theoretical work.

At Brown University, Crichton's Cognitive Engineering Lab serves as the hub for his research on how cognitive principles can inform programming language design and implementation. The lab develops tools that help programmers understand complex systems through visualizations and interactive interfaces, with particular focus on Rust's ownership model and document representation systems.