[TYPES/announce] Postdoctoral and PhD opportunities in language-based security and provenance in LFCS

[James Cheney]

A postdoctoral research position has become available in LFCS, University
of Edinburgh, in language-based security and provenance.  The position is
available January 1, 2015 (the start date has some flexibility) and is for
12 months initially, with possible extension contingent on availability of
funding and performance.

A PhD studentship is also available; please see the following page for
further information about both opportunities:

http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/jcheney/lbps.html

== Project description ==

Provenance, or metadata describing the process by which a computation
produced some data or by which a data resource has been constructed over
time, is important in a variety of contexts, including science,
intelligence gathering, and audit of business data, but so far there is
relatively poor understanding of the theoretical foundations of provenance.
The overarching goal is to develop foundational understanding of provenance
based on ideas from programming languages and language-based security, and
in particular, how the transparency and accountability goals of provenance
tracking might conflict with or complement traditional security policies
and mechanisms.

Applicants should have, at a minimum, a PhD degree (or be close to
completion) in computer science, with a track record of high quality
publications.  A strong background in foundations of programming languages,
databases, or language-based security is required.  Ideal candidates will
have both solid theoretical grounding and experience applying principles in
practical systems.  Previous research experience concerning provenance or
related topics such as trust, program slicing, information flow security,
concurrency, or verification/dependently-typed programming would be
desirable.


The successful applicant will play an important role in one or more of the
following project tasks:


* Enrich and extend formal models of provenance from simple programming
  languages or database query languages to handle features such as
concurrency,
  references, side-effects, notions of location, time, or boundaries of
control.
* Analyze existing proposals for provenance security mechanisms, and
identify
  shortcomings or generalizations leading to a richer understanding of
policies and
  correct mechanisms for provenance
* Develop efficient techniques for integrating provenance-tracking
techniques into
  programming languages or other frameworks.
* Formalize and verify provenance techniques in mechanized proof systems or
  dependently-typed languages such as Coq, Agda or Isabelle/HOL.

For more information about the project background, please consult our
recent publications page here:

http://wcms.inf.ed.ac.uk/lfcs/research/groups-and-projects/database/provenance/#provenance-and-security

== Application instructions ==

A complete application consists of a CV and a 1-2 page research statement
summarizing your background, previous research experience, and how they
relate to this position.

Applications must be submitted by 5pm GMT on November 24, 2014, through the
University of Edinburgh recruitment site:

http://vacancies.ed.ac.uk
Reference number:  031702

or directly by following this link:

https://www.vacancies.ed.ac.uk/pls/corehrrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.jobspec?p_id=031702

Interviews will likely be held during the first half of December.

== About the University of Edinburgh and LFCS ==

The University of Edinburgh School of Informatics brings together
world-class research groups in theoretical computer science, artificial
intelligence and cognitive science. The School led the UK 2008 RAE rankings
in volume of internationally recognised or internationally excellent
research.

The Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science was established by
Burstall, Milner and Plotkin in 1986, and is recognized worldwide for
groundbreaking research on topics in programming languages, semantics, type
theory, proof theory, algorithms and complexity, databases, security, and
systems biology.

Programming Languages and Foundations is one of the largest research
activities in LFCS, including 15 academic staff, 8 postdoctoral
researchers, and 10 current PhD students, working on functional
programming, types, verification, semantics, software engineering,
language-based security and new programming models. We participate in a
thriving PL research community across Scotland, with Scottish Programming
Languages Seminars hosted every 3-4 months by PL groups at Glasgow,
Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, St. Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh.

For more information about Edinburgh and research activity in PL, see these
pages:

* Explore Edinburgh
   (http://www.ed.ac.uk/about/city)
* Programming Languages and Foundations at LFCS
   (http://wcms.inf.ed.ac.uk/lfcs/research/groups-and-projects/pl)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/pipermail/types-announce/attachments/20141016/4f6f9380/attachment.html>