[TYPES/announce] PhD Positions in Language-based Security at Chalmers

[Andrei Sabelfeld]

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*PhD Student Positions in Programming Language-based Security*
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Application deadline: April 30, 2008

Full version of this announcement:
http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/news/vacancies/positions/phd-student-positions-in6722

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*The Department*

The department provides a strong, international, and dynamic research
environment with about 75 faculty and 75 PhD students. For more
information, see http://www.chalmers.se/cse/EN/.

Knowledge of Swedish is not a prerequisite for application. English is
our working language for research. Both Swedish and English are used in
undergraduate courses. Half of our researchers and PhD students are
native Swedes; the rest come from more than 30 different countries.

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*PhD Project*

The PhD students will join a world-leading team of researchers on
*programming language-based security*. Language-based security
facilitates specifying and enforcing security policies at the level of
programming languages early in the software design and construction phase.

The focus of the advertised positions is on *language-based
information-flow security*. Given a program that manipulates sensitive
data, the aim is to make sure there is no information flow (caused by
the execution of the program) that may compromise the sensitive data.

Drawing on the recent progress in this area, the goal of the positions
is to pursue the following directions of work:

   * To design *rich security policies* for confidentiality and
     integrity, as demanded by practical applications (such as web
     applications). These security policies should be formal: they
     should operate at the level of programming-language semantics.
   * To develop *practical enforcement mechanisms* for these policies
     in expressive programming languages (such as web languages). These
     enforcement mechanisms may combine static (for example, type
     system-based) and dynamic (for example, execution
     monitoring-based) techniques.
   * To support the above with case studies in web-application security.

In pursuing these goals, there are possibilities for collaboration with
our high-profile academic and industrial partners.

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*Details about Employment*

PhD student positions are limited to five years and will then normally
include 20% departmental work, mostly teaching duties.  Salary for the
position is as specified in Chalmers' general agreement for PhD
student positions.

The positions are intended to start on September 1, 2008. In exceptional
cases, we can imagine moving the starting date.

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*Suitable Background*

Applicants must have a very good degree in Computing Science or in a
related subject with a strong Computing Science component. They must
also have a strong, documented interest in doing research. The ideal
student for the project will have strong background in both programming
languages and security.

You may even apply if you have not yet completed your degree, but expect
to do so before the position starts.

In order to improve gender balance, Chalmers welcomes in particular
applications from female candidates.

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*How to Apply*

The full application should contain

  1. A letter of application, listing specific research interests
  2. Copies of degrees and other certificates
  3. A curriculum vitae
  4. Letters of recommendation from your teachers or employers
  5. Copies of relevant work, for example dissertations, theses,
     or articles, that you have authored or co-authored

You MUST include letters of recommendation: we typically get over 100
applications, and it is simply not feasible for us to request
individual letters!

Your application needs to include the job reference number 2008/60. The
last date for your full application to arrive is April 30, 2008.

The application can be submitted electronically, or on paper,
following the guidelines on this web page:

http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/news/vacancies/positions/phd-student-positions-in6722