Charles Leiserson is the Edwin Sibley Webster Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT. He is renowned for co-authoring the seminal textbook Introduction to Algorithms , now in its fourth edition, which is widely used globally. His research focuses on algorithms, parallel computing, and software performance engineering, with contributions to theoretical computer science and practical systems like the Cilk multithreaded language and the Connection Machine CM-5 architecture. Leiserson’s work spans compiler design (e.g., Pochoir for stencil computations) and high-performance computing frameworks. He explores post-Moore’s Law computational strategies, graph neural networks for financial forensics, and deterministic parallel algorithms. His educational contributions include courses like 6.172 (Performance Engineering of Software Systems) and initiatives in scalable graph learning. His research has led to innovations in parallel programming models, algorithm optimization, and hardware-software co-design. Leiserson’s interdisciplinary work bridges theory and practice, influencing both academic research and real-world applications in finance, cryptography, and supercomputing.
Max S. New is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan, part of the MPLSE research community. His research focuses on the mathematical foundations of programming languages, particularly interoperability between languages via Gradual Typing and compiler intermediate languages. He holds a PhD from Northeastern University (2020) and completed a postdoc at Wesleyan University. Research interests include formal methods, type theory, compiler design, and categorical logic. Recent work emphasizes verified parsing using Dependent Lambek Calculus, demonstrated in a PLDI 2025 paper accepted with students Steven Schaefer and collaborators. Advises PhD students in areas like language interoperability and formal verification. Active in open-source projects like the Agda implementation of Dependent Lambek Calculus.
Alexander Jech is a Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame since 2014, serving as Director of Undergraduate Studies since 2016. He holds a Ph.D. (2009) and M.A. (2007) from Notre Dame, and a B.A. (2002) from the University of Washington. His research spans moral philosophy, political philosophy, philosophical theology, and the works of Kierkegaard and Tocqueville, with a focus on themes like freedom, love, and existential crisis. His academic career includes roles at UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia. He has authored books such as The Hurricane Notebook (2019) and a translation of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling (2024), alongside peer-reviewed articles in journals like American Political Thought and Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook . Awards include the Humane Studies Fellowship and multiple grants from Templeton and ISLA. Jech’s teaching spans introductory philosophy, existential themes, ethics, and political thought. He has advised numerous senior theses on topics ranging from Kierkegaard to international development. His work bridges philosophy with literature, theology, and political theory, often examining the interplay between human nature and societal structures. Professional service includes organizing speaker series, serving on departmental committees, and refereeing for top journals. He fluently reads Danish and ancient Greek, with intermediate proficiency in Italian and Latin.
Delphine Demange is an Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Rennes, affiliated with Inria, CNRS, and IRISA, where she conducts research in the Epicure group. Her work focuses on programming languages, formal semantics, compiler verification, and program verification using interactive theorem provers. Research Interests: Programming Languages Implementation Compiler Verification Formal Semantics Program Verification with Interactive Theorem Provers Static Analysis and Language-Based Security Her recent publications demonstrate a strong trend in mechanized semantics, verified compilation, and correctness of intermediate representations such as SSA forms and dataflow circuits. She frequently employs Coq for formal verification and contributes to foundational aspects of compiler correctness. Scientific Awards: EAPLS Best PhD Dissertation Award 2012 Gilles Kahn PhD Thesis Award 2013 Delphine Demange has held significant service roles, including Program Co-Chair for CC 2021 and General Co-Chair for JFLA 2023 and 2024. She has served on numerous program committees for top conferences such as POPL, PLDI, CPP, ESOP, and OOPSLA, reflecting her active engagement in the programming languages community. She teaches courses in programming, algorithmics, compilation, semantics, and software security at both undergraduate and master's levels. She is part of the Epicure research team at IRISA, focusing on verified systems and programming language foundations.
Dr. Deepayan Bhowmik is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Research at Newcastle University's School of Computing. He holds a PhD in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on image/signal processing, AI, neuromorphic vision systems, and their applications in media security, remote sensing, and space research. He actively contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to clean water, environmental sustainability, and responsible consumption. Grants & Collaborations: PI of £2M EPSRC-funded North East Space Communications Accelerator (2025-2029) Co-I in Airbus-funded Smart Earth Observation Satellite Constellation project (2024-2028) Lead on JPEG Trust international standard for media authenticity Research Interests: Combines theoretical advancements in signal processing with practical applications in media forensics, environmental monitoring, and heterogeneous computing. Recent work addresses AI-generated media manipulation detection and satellite imagery analysis for ecological challenges like water hyacinth infestation. Publications: Over 28 peer-reviewed articles spanning watermarking techniques, FPGA optimization, and remote sensing applications. Recent trends show increasing focus on AI-driven media security and space-based earth observation systems.
Jedidiah McClurg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colorado State University, with prior faculty appointments at Colorado School of Mines and the University of New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018, where he was a member of the CUPLV research group under the supervision of Pavol Cerny. His research focuses on programming languages, program synthesis, verification, and their applications in networking, compilers, and distributed systems. His educational background includes an M.S. in Computer Science from Northwestern University (2013) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa (2009). He has completed internships at Microsoft Research (RiSE Group, 2014) and Rockwell Collins (2011, 2013, 2004). McClurg’s research interests include programming languages, formal verification, software synthesis, software-defined networking, compilers, and system security. His work aims to develop tools and techniques that help programmers write more secure, reliable, and efficient code, especially in safety-critical domains. He has led multiple NSF-funded projects, including FMitF and CRII grants, totaling over $1 million in funding. His recent publications span high-impact venues such as PLDI, CAV, DISC, and SOSR, with topics ranging from neural network optimization and regular expression synthesis to network program verification and FEC code generation. These works reflect a consistent trend toward automating correctness, improving performance, and enabling scalable solutions in systems and networking. NSF CRII: SHF: Foundations for Stateful Network Programming ($175,000) NSF FMitF: Game Theoretic Updates for Network & Cloud Functions ($355,000 for him) NSF FMitF: Robust Enforcement of Customizable Resource Constraints ($250,000 for him) NSF GRFP (awarded to student Lauren Baker) He has advised multiple graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have secured positions at leading tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. He is actively involved in academic service, having served on program committees for PLDI, SOSR, CAV, and others, and as a reviewer for journals like IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN) and ACM Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE). He also contributes to open-source research via GitHub and maintains a strong online academic presence.
Amal Ahmed is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Northeastern University's College of Computer and Information Science. She is an active researcher and academic leader in programming languages, with significant contributions to type systems, compiler verification, and language interoperability. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical systems applications, particularly in the areas of gradual typing and secure compilation. Dr. Ahmed's research focuses on correct and secure compilation , linking types for multi-language software , typed compilation of dependent types , semantics and logical relations , gradual typing , and safe language interoperability . Her work explores how to formally verify compilers and ensure type safety across language boundaries, with applications to modern systems like WebAssembly. She has developed novel semantic approaches to application binary interfaces and language interoperability that provide strong security guarantees. Her recent publications show a consistent focus on formal methods for language design, with increasing attention to probabilistic programming and separation logic. She has made significant contributions to understanding how gradual typing systems can maintain parametricity and how borrowing concepts from Rust can be formally modeled. Her work on RichWasm demonstrates practical applications of her theoretical research to web technologies. Dr. Ahmed actively serves the programming languages community through leadership roles in major conferences. She has chaired program committees, organized workshops, and mentored students through the Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop (PLMW). Her involvement spans POPL, ICFP, PLDI, SPLASH, and related conferences, where she regularly presents research and participates in steering committees. As an educator and mentor, she has presented numerous talks on managing research, working with advisors, and navigating academic careers, particularly through the PLMW series. She has chaired doctoral symposia and served on review committees, demonstrating her commitment to developing the next generation of programming languages researchers.
Tobias Grosser is an Associate Professor in Compiler Design at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge. His research spans compilation, programming language design, and performance programming with applications to climate science, quantum computing, and hardware design. He leads an active research group focusing on making compilers more modular, predictable, and trustworthy while bridging the gap between developers and compilers. His research interests include: Compilers and polyhedral compilation Static and dynamic program analysis High-performance computing and loop optimization Domain-specific compilation for accelerators (GPU, FPGA) Formal verification for compiler correctness Machine learning applications to compiler design His recent publications demonstrate significant contributions to multi-level intermediate representations (MLIR), compiler verification using Lean, and performance modeling. His work on xDSL provides a Python-native compiler framework that enables rapid prototyping of compiler infrastructure. His research group has developed tools like FPL (Fast Presburger Library) for loop optimization in deep learning and scientific computing. Scientific awards include two Amazon Research Awards (2023-2024) for work in automated reasoning, a Google PhD Fellowship, and an Ambizione Fellowship at ETH Zurich. He has advised numerous PhD students and researchers who have gone on to positions at Google, ETH Zurich, NVIDIA, and Intel. He actively collaborates with industry through the Amazon Scholars program and hosts regular Compiler Social events in Cambridge. His research vision emphasizes connecting compiler technology with societal challenges like climate change while maintaining a strong commitment to open-source development and diversity in computer science.
Dr. Zhiru Zhang is a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University and a member of the Computer Systems Laboratory. His research focuses on new algorithms, methodologies, and design automation tools for heterogeneous computing systems, with recent publications centering on high-level synthesis (HLS), hardware specialization for machine learning, and programming models for software-defined FPGAs. Dr. Zhang earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA, where he co-founded AutoESL based on his dissertation research on HLS. AutoESL was acquired by Xilinx (now AMD), and its HLS tool evolved into Vivado HLS (now Vitis HLS), which is widely used for designing FPGA-based hardware accelerators. He also holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Peking University and an M.S. in Computer Science from UCLA. Dr. Zhang's research interests span hardware design, high-level synthesis, FPGA acceleration, machine learning acceleration, heterogeneous computing systems, and computer architecture. His work bridges the gap between software algorithms and hardware implementation, focusing on creating efficient design automation tools that enable specialized hardware for emerging applications, particularly in AI and machine learning. His recent publications demonstrate strong trends in differentiable programming for hardware design, sparse computation optimization, and efficient implementation of large language models on FPGAs. Dr. Zhang has received numerous prestigious awards including being named an IEEE Fellow, the Intel Outstanding Researcher Award, AWS AI Amazon Research Award, Facebook Research Award, Google Faculty Research Award, DAC Under-40 Innovators Award, Rising Professional Achievement Award from UCLA, DARPA Young Faculty Award, IEEE CEDA Ernest S. Kuh Early Career Award, and NSF CAREER Award. His papers have won multiple Best Paper Awards from top conferences including ASPLOS (2025), ISPD (2025), FPGA (2024, 2022, 2021, 2019), AutoML (2024), FCCM (2018), ACM TODAES (2012), and Top Picks in Hardware and Embedded Security (2020). His papers on HLS scheduling and application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) compilation have been inducted into the ACM/SIGDA TCFPGA Hall of Fame for the classes of 2022 and 2023, respectively. On the teaching side, Dr. Zhang has received the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018) and twice the Michael Tien'72 Excellence in Teaching Award (2016, 2022), the highest recognition for teaching in the College of Engineering. He teaches courses including ECE 5775/6775: High-Level Digital Design Automation, ENGRD/ECE 2300: Digital Logic and Computer Organization, ECE 6980: Special Topics on Hardware Acceleration of Deep Learning, ENGRG 1050: Freshman Engineering Seminar, and ECE 5950: Special Topics on High-Level Digital Design Automation. Dr. Zhang leads an active research group with numerous PhD students and postdocs. His current students include Jordan Dotzel, Jie Liu, Zichao Yue, Yixiao Du, Yaohui Cai, Andrew Butt, Hongzheng Chen, Jiajie Li, Niansong Zhang, Matthew Hofmann, Zhanqiu Hu, Vesal Bakhtazad, and Grace Dinh. His alumni have gone on to successful careers at companies like NVIDIA, Google, AWS AI, Meta, Microsoft, and academic positions at universities including University of Illinois Chicago and Zhejiang University. The group has received multiple research grants from industry partners including AWS, Intel, and Google.
Philippa Gardner is a Professor in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, holding a UK Research and Innovation Established Career Fellowship (2018–2023). She leads the Research Institute on Verified Trustworthy Software Systems (VeTSS, 2017–2023) and is renowned for her work on program specification and verification, particularly in concurrent separation logics and the development of the Gillian platform for symbolic analysis of real-world languages like C and JavaScript. PhD from the University of Edinburgh (1992), supervised by Professor Gordon Plotkin FRS. EPSRC Advanced Fellowship at Cambridge (1998), followed by a lectureship at Imperial (2001) and promotion to Professor (2009). Her research bridges program verification, symbolic execution, and bi-abduction, focusing on robust mechanised language specifications. She has pioneered library specifications for JavaScript and WebAssembly, emphasizing environment robustness and scalable compositional reasoning. The Gillian platform unifies classical symbolic execution, separation-logic verification, and bi-abduction-based testing. Philippa has received prestigious awards, including the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship (2020), President and Rector’s Award for Teaching (2013), and Microsoft Research — Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Fellowship (2005–2009). She has secured significant grants from Amazon, Facebook, EPSRC, and GCHQ for projects like Gillian and JSVerify. She actively supervises PhD students and teaches the Scalable Software Verification course. As General Chair of POPL ’24 and organizer of the Isaac Newton Institute’s Verified Software program (2022), she shapes academic discourse. Her editorial roles and conference committee memberships further underscore her influence in programming languages and formal methods.
Dr. Polly Hodge is an Associate Professor at Chapman University , serving as Director of the Spanish Major Program within the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences . She has been teaching Spanish Literature and Language since 1997 and advises Chapman's chapter of Sigma Delta Pi , the National Hispanic Honor Society. PhD in Spanish from University of California, Irvine Bilingual education specialist Her research focuses on contemporary Spanish playwrights , Hispanic cinema , and historical memory , with particular interest in intersections between theater and photography, literary intertextuality, and gender representation. She has edited multiple volumes on José Moreno Arenas' works and contributed critical essays to major journals. Dr. Hodge's recent publications include: 2024: Analysis of Marcela del Río's dialogical art spaces 2023: Study of incarceration themes in Elena Cánovas' plays 2021: Lorca reinterpretation in Moreno Arenas' Federico, en carne viva She actively contributes to theater scholarship through editorial roles with Estreno and Ediciones de Gestos , focusing on: Contemporary Spanish dramatic works Bilingual theater research Urban space representation in performance
Henrik Kaatari is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Gävle . His research focuses on corpus linguistics , language learning , and formality in academic writing , with particular interests in grammatical variation , syntactic complexity , and the impact of extramural English (EE) activities on L2 writing development. Current Project : Principal Investigator of the ComplEExity Project (RJ P23-0437), funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, investigating EE's impact on Swedish secondary students' L2 writing. Research Areas : Lexical complexity, register variation, phraseology, and self-initiated language learning. His recent publications analyze the relationship between extramural exposure (e.g., gaming, YouTube) and improvements in lexical diversity and grammatical complexity. Using the Swedish Learner English Corpus , Kaatari employs cross-sectional designs and complexity measures to assess writing development across lexis, phraseology, and grammar. His work has practical implications for English pedagogy in Swedish schools.
Martin Moreno is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University. His office is located in Dreese Laboratories at 2015 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH. His research focuses on the intersection of compilers, programming languages, high-performance computing, and quantum computing, with goals to enhance program execution speed, reliability, and portability across architectures. Research Interests: Dr. Moreno specializes in polyhedral compilation, GPU optimizations, quantum computing abstractions, distributed-memory algorithms, and energy-aware computing. His work bridges theoretical compiler design with practical performance improvements for modern hardware, including GPUs and quantum processors. Recent Research Trends: Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals strong emphasis on: 1) Automated code generation for distributed systems and tensor computations, 2) Quantum program optimization through affine transformations, 3) Energy-efficient GPU computing via polyhedral models, and 4) Novel compiler frameworks for task-based parallelism. His work consistently integrates formal methods (e.g., SMT solvers) with practical runtime systems. Student Advising: Actively seeks motivated students for research projects in compiler optimizations and quantum computing. Applicants to OSU are encouraged to list him as a potential advisor and mention PLSE/HPC interests in statements of purpose.
Dr. Marcel Köster is a researcher affiliated with the Ubiquitous Media Technology Lab at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Saarland Informatics Campus. His work focuses on GPGPU computing, particle simulations, compilers, and optimization techniques. Email: Marcel.Koester@dfki.de Phone: +49 681 85775 7750 Location: Gebäude D3 1, Room 0.13, Saarbrücken Research Interests Dr. Köster's research integrates GPU computing with simulation algorithms and compiler optimization. He contributes to advancements in parallel processing, domain-specific languages, and scientific visualization through both theoretical exploration and practical implementations. His publications highlight innovative applications of GPU acceleration to heuristic optimization, state generation, and particle simulations. These works demonstrate expertise in thread compaction, shared memory utilization, and warp scheduling. Teaching Experience Dr. Köster has taught multiple courses at HBK Saar, including: Artificial Intelligence (Summer 2019) Grundlagen der Medieninformatik (Winter 2016/17) Physical Simulations on Media Facades (Winter 2015/16) Core Lecture: Compiler Construction (Winter 2013/2014)
Olivier Flückiger is a Researcher affiliated with Google , with past involvement at Northeastern University. He actively contributes to programming language design, compiler optimization, and runtime system verification through publications in venues like PLDI, POPL, and SPLASH. Current affiliation: Google Past affiliation: Northeastern University Committee roles in ECOOP, PLDI, VMIL, and SPLASH Research Interests : Just-In-Time Compilation and Speculative Optimization Function Specialization and Runtime Monitoring Lazy Evaluation and Intermediate Representations Security Implications of Compilation Techniques Language Implementation for Dynamic Languages Compiler Verification and Deoptimization Mechanisms Trends in Publications : His work focuses on hybrid dynamic verification, on-stack replacement, and type feedback mechanisms, emphasizing correctness in speculative optimizations and language migration challenges (e.g., R to strict semantics). Conference Leadership : Co-chair for ICOOOLPS 2021 Program Committee for VMIL, MPLR, and SPLASH tracks Artifact Evaluation Committee for ECOOP Volunteer and session chair roles in academic conferences
