Sam Staton

Sam Staton
Sam Staton
Sam Staton
Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science,
University of Oxford
Room 421
Wolfson Building, Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3QD
Senior Research Fellow,
Jesus College, Oxford
+44 (0)1865 (2)73893
sam.staton at cs.ox.ac.uk
Interests:
My research is in programming language theory, and I'm
also interested in logic and category theory. I've recently been especially interested in
two kinds of programming language:
Probabilistic programming languages
This is broadly to do with specifying and understanding statistical models using programming languages.
I am currently running a
ERC Consolidator grant
in this area, and we have been given
Facebook research award
too.
Most recently we were awarded a grant from the ARIA programme
Safeguarded AI
, called '
Employing Categorical Probability towards Safe AI
', as well as an Opportunity Seed, '
SynthStats: GFlowNet-steered probabilistic program synthesis for safer AI
'.
Our
POPL 2023
introduces the
LazyPPL
library which demonstrates the power of lazy data structures in probabilistic programming. Quite a bit of my work in semantics of probabilistic programming starts from two key ideas:
s-finite kernels
as a simple compositional formalism allowing both sampling and observations (
ESOP 2017
), and
quasi-Borel spaces
, a new setting for higher order probability theory (
LICS 2017
). Our
PPS
2017 abstract
looked at the relationship between exchangeability and program modules which I think is an exciting direction, and we stepped further in
ICALP 2018
AHP 2021
and
POPL 2024
Quantum computing and programming languages
Mathieu Huot and I found a neat universal property for quantum theory (
LICS 2019
QPL 2018
) based on my theory of quantum programs
POPL 2015
).
Earlier, I've worked on contextuality and non-locality with
Sander Uijlen
(see our
ICALP 2015
paper), and on
quantum programming languages with
Mathys Rennela
(see our
MFPS 2017
LMCS
and
2015
papers
and our
QPL 2016
paper). My research in this area has been supported by my grant 'Quantum
Computation as a Programming Language' (
EP/N007387/1
and a current AFOSR grant FA9550-21-1-0038.
Aside from these recent interests, I've been involved in various foundational
aspects of programming language theory.
One key theme has been
computational monads and algebraic theories:
This line of work stems from the observation that
notions of computation can be determined by program equations
using techniques from universal algebra.
I have presented
new algebraic frameworks to analyze program equations
for quantum computation (
POPL 2015
), jumps (
LICS 2014
),
local store and pi-calculus (
LICS 2013
FOSSACS 2010
and
MFPS
2009
and functional logic programming (
FOSSACS
2013
).
See
FOSSACS 2019
for a program logic,
and
WACT 2014
for a categorical perspective.
I've also been involved in game semantics
LICS 2014
) and
categorical operational semantics (e.g.
LICS
2008
LICS 2006
LMCS 2011
).
Quick biography:
I've been in Oxford since March 2015. Since 2020 I've been partly supported by my ERC Consolidator Grant
'Better Languages for Statistics'
. Between 2015-2022 I was supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Before that, I spent time
in
Nijmegen (NL) on Bart Jacobs' ERC project Quantum Computation, Logic, and
Security (2013–14), in Paris on the CHOCO project (2010–11), and in Cambridge as a
lecturer (2010–13), on a EPSRC research fellowship (2007–10), as a postdoc
(2006–07), a PhD student (with Marcelo Fiore, 2002–06)
and an undergraduate.
Jump down for postdocs, PhD students and more CV-related info.
Publications and preprints
POPL Distinguished Paper:
O. Kammar, J. Liell-Cock, S. Lindley, C. Matache, S. Staton.
An equational axiomatization of dynamic threads via algebraic effects
. In Proceedings of POPL 2026. [
pdf
doi:10.1145/3776706
J. Liell-Cock, Z. Shirazi, S. Staton.
The relative monadic metalanguage
. In Proceedings of POPL 2026. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2512.11762
doi:10.1145/3776702
Notes on
A causal Markov category with Kolmogorov products
. Sean Moss and Sam Staton. [
pdf
arxiv:2512.24417
Cristina Matache, Sam Lindley, Sean Moss, Sam Staton, Nicolas Wu, Zhixuan Yang.
Scoped Effects, Scoped Operations, and Parameterized Algebraic Theories
In ACM Transactions of Programming Languages and Systems (TOPLAS), Volume 47, 2025. [
pdf
arxiv:2402.03103
doi:10.1145/3731678
Z. Ye, L. C. Melo, Y. Kaddar, P. Blunsom, S. Staton, Y. Gal.
Uncertainty-Aware Step-wise Verification with Generative Reward Models.
Accepted for ICLR 2025 Workshop on Quantifying Uncertainty and Hallucination in Foundation Models. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2502.11250
J. Liell-Cock and S. Staton.
Compositional models of imprecise probability
. In Proceedings of POPL 2025. Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 9,
Article No.: 54.
Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2405.09391
doi:10.1145/3704890
Cristina Matache, Sam Lindley, Sean Moss, Sam Staton, Nicolas Wu, Zhixuan Yang.
Scoped Effects as Parameterized Algebraic Theories
In Proceedings of ESOP 2024.
doi:10.1007/978-3-031-57262-3_1
. Preprint: [
pdf
Extended version:
arxiv:2402.03103
D. Stein and S. Staton.
Probabilistic programming with exact conditions
. In
Journal of the ACM
, Volume 71, Issue 1, Article 2. 2024. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2312.17141
doi:10.1145/363217
N. Ackerman, C. Freer, Y. Kaddar, J. Karwowski, S. Moss, D. Roy, S. Staton and Hongseok Yang.
Probabilistic programming interfaces for random graphs: Markov categories, graphons, and nominal sets.
In
Proceedings of 50th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
(POPL 24). Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 8, Issue POPL
Article No.: 61. Preprint: [
pdf
].
doi:10.1145/3632903
LICS Distinguished Paper:
A. Lew, M. Huot, S. Staton and V. Mansinghka.
omega-PAP Spaces: Reasoning Denotationally About Higher-Order, Recursive Probabilistic and Differentiable Programs.
In Proceedings of Thirty-Eighth Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science (
LICS 2023
).
doi:10.1109/LICS56636.2023.10175739
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
arxiv:2302.10636
Y. Kaddar, S. Staton.
A model of stochastic memoization and name generation in probabilistic programming: categorical semantics via monads on presheaf categories.
In Proceedings of 39th Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (
MFPS 2023
). Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2309.09467
S. Dash, Y. Kaddar, H. Paquet and S. Staton.
Affine monads and lazy structures for Bayesian programming.
In Proceedings of 50th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (
POPL 2023
). Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 7, Article No.: 46, Pages 1338 - 1368. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2212.07250
doi:10.1145/3571239
POPL Distinguished Paper:
A. Lew, M. Huot, S. Staton and V. Mansinghka.
ADEV: Sound Automatic Differentiation of Expected Values of Probabilistic Programs.
In Proceedings of 50th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (
POPL 2023
). Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 7, Article No. 5.
doi:10.1145/3571198
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
arxiv:2212.06386
Selected for QPL plenary:
S. Staton and N. Summers.
Quantum de Finetti Theorems as Categorical Limits, and Limits of State Spaces of C*-algebras.
To appear in Proceedings of International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic 2022 (
QPL 2022
). Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2207.05832
C. Matache, S. Moss and S. Staton.
Concrete categories and higher-order recursion.
In Proceedings of 27th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science (LICS 2022).
doi:10.1145/3531130.3533370
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2205.15917
M. Huot, S. Staton and M. Vákár.
Higher order automatic differentiation of higher order functions
In
Logical Methods in Computer Science
. 2022.
doi:10.46298/lmcs-18(1:41)2022
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
arxiv:2101.06757
S. Dash and S. Staton.
Monads for measurable queries in probabilistic databases.
In proceedings of 37th Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (
MFPS 2021
). 2021.
doi:10.4204/EPTCS.351.3
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2112.14048
C. Matache, S. Moss and S. Staton.
Recursion and Sequentiality in Categories of Sheaves.
In Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction (
FSCD 2021
).
arxiv:2105.02156
doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.FSCD.2021.25
. Preprint: [
pdf
] 2021.
LICS Distinguished Paper:
D. Stein and S. Staton.
Compositional Semantics for Probabilistic Programs with Exact Conditioning.
In Proceedings of Thirty-Sixth Annual ACM/IEEE Conference on Logic in Computer Science (
LICS 2021
).
arxiv:2101.11351
doi:10.1109/LICS52264.2021.9470552
. Preprint: [
pdf
] 2021.
LazyPPL.
github
]. 2021 onwards. Selected for
spotlight presentation
at
AIPLANS 2021
. Full paper at
POPL 2023
P. Jung, J. Lee, S. Staton and H. Yang.
A generalization of hierarchical exchangeability on trees to directed acyclic graphs
Annales Henri Lebesgue
, vol 4, 2021. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1812.06282
doi:10.5802/ahl.74
. Jiho's poster about this journal paper was awarded an
Honourable Mention
at
BNP 2019
B. Vidgen, S. Staton, S. Hale, T. Melham, H. Margetts, O. Kammar, M. Szymczak.
Recalibrating classifiers for interpretable abusive content detection.
In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Computational Social Science (
NLP+CSS 2020
). [
PDF at AclWeb
].
M. Sabok, S. Staton, D. Stein and M. Wolman.
Probabilistic programming semantics for name generation.
In Proceedings of
POPL 2021
. Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages vol 5.
arxiv:2007.08638
doi:10.1145/3434292
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
S. Dash and S. Staton.
A monad for probabilistic point processes.
In
Proceedings of Applied Category Theory 2020
ACT 2020
). Open access: [
pdf
].
arxiv:2101.10479
M. Huot, S. Staton and M. Vákár.
Correctness of Automatic Differentiation via diffeologies and categorical gluing
In
23rd International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures
FOSSACS 2020
).
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-45231-5_17
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
arxiv:2001.02209
B. Jacobs and S. Staton.
De Finetti's construction as a categorical limit
In
15th International Workshop on Coalgebraic Methods in Computer Science
CMCS 2020
). Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:2003.01964
M. Rennela and S. Staton.
Classical control, quantum circuits and linear logic in enriched category theory
. In Logical Methods In Computer Science, March 2020. [
pdf
arxiv:1711.05159
M. Huot and S. Staton.
Quantum channels as a categorical completion
In
34th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science
LICS 2019
).
doi:10.1109/LICS.2019.8785700
. Preprint: [
pdf
].
arxiv:1904.09600
C. Matache and S. Staton.
A sound and complete logic for algebraic effects.
In
22nd International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures
FOSSACS 2019
).
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17127-8_22
. Preprint: [
pdf
POPL
distinguished paper
M. Vákár, O. Kammar and S. Staton.
A domain theory for statistical probabilistic programming.
In Proceedings of
46th ACM Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
POPL 2019
). Proc. ACM Program. Lang., Volume 3, Article 36.
doi:10.1145/3290349
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1811.04196
M. Huot and S. Staton.
Universal properties in quantum theory.
In
15th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic
QPL 2018
). Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 287, pp. 213–223.
doi:10.4204/EPTCS.287.12
Preprint: [
pdf
] (open access). Errata:
txt
S. Staton, D. Stein, H. Yang, N. L. Ackerman, C. Freer, D. Roy.
The Beta-Bernoulli Process and Algebraic Effects.
In
Proceedings of 45th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming
ICALP 2018
).
doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2018.141
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1802.09598
A. Ścibior, O. Kammar, M. Vákár, S. Staton, H. Yang, Y. Cai, K. Ostermann, S.K. Moss, C. Heunen, and Zoubin Ghahramani.
Denotational validation of Bayesian inference.
In
Proceedings of 45th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
(POPL 2018). In Proc. ACM Program. Lang., Volume 2, Article 60.
doi:10.1145/3158148
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1711.03219
S. Staton and S. Uijlen.
Effect algebras, presheaves, non-locality and
contextuality.
Information and Computation Vol 261, Part 2, Pages 336–365.
(2018). Invited contribution for special issue on ICALP 2015.
doi:10.1016/j.ic.2018.02.012
Preprint: [
pdf
Winner of
EATCS Best Paper Award
S. Staton.
Commutative semantics for probabilistic programming.
In Proceedings of
26th European Symposium on Programming
ESOP
2017
),
doi:10.1007/978-3-662-54434-1_32
Preprint: [
pdf
M. Rennela and S. Staton.
Classical Control and Quantum Circuits in Enriched Category Theory.
In Proceedings of
33rd Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics
MFPS 2017
).
Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 336:
257--279. [
pdf
] Open access:
doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2018.03.027
. Extended version:
arxiv:1711.05159
M. Piróg and S. Staton.
Backtracking with cut
via a distributive law and left-zero monoids.
Theoretical Pearl for Journal of Functional Programming, vol 27. 2017.
doi:10.1017/S0956796817000077
Preprint: [
pdf
Selected for
STOC best of theory
C. Heunen, O. Kammar, S. Staton and H. Yang.
A convenient category for higher-order probability theory.
In Proceedings of
32nd Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic
in Computer Science
LICS 2017
).
doi:10.1109/LICS.2017.8005137
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1701.02547
O. Kammar, P. B. Levy, S. K. Moss and S. Staton.
A monad for full ground reference cells.
In Proceedings of
32nd Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic
in Computer Science
LICS 2017
).
doi:10.1109/LICS.2017.8005109
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1702.04908
S. Staton, H. Yang, N. L.. Ackerman, C. Freer, D. Roy
Exchangeable random process and data abstraction.
Workshop on probabilistic programming semantics
PPS
2017
). Extended abstract: [
pdf
R. Furber, M. Rennela and S. Staton.
Infinite-dimensionality in quantum foundations: W*-algebras as
presheaves over matrix algebras.
In Proceedings of
13th International Conference on Quantum
Physics and Logic
QPL 2016
).
Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science vol 236 pages
161–173.
doi:10.4204/EPTCS.236.11
arxiv:1701.00662
. Preprint: [
pdf
S. Staton, H. Yang, C. Heunen,
O. Kammar and F. Wood.
Semantics for probabilistic programming: higher-order
functions, continuous distributions, and soft constraints.
In Proceedings of
31st Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic
in Computer Science
LICS 2016
).
doi:10.1145/2933575.2935313
. Preprint: [
pdf
arXiv:1601.04943
M. Rennela and S. Staton.
Complete positivity and natural representation of quantum computations.
In Proceedings of
31st Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics
MFPS 2015
).
Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 319:
369-385.
doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2015.12.022
. Preprint: [
pdf
S. Staton and S. Uijlen.
Effect algebras, presheaves, non-locality and contextuality.
In Proceedings of
42nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming
ICALP 2015
),
pages 401-413.
doi:10.1007/978-3-662-47666-6_32
[preprint:
pdf
R. Atkey, N. Ghani, F. Nordvall Forsberg, T. Revell and S. Staton.
Models for polymorphism over physical dimensions.
In Proceedings of
13th International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculi and
Applications
TLCA
2015
),
pages 45-59.
doi:10.4230/LIPIcs.TLCA.2015.45
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Algebraic effects, linearity, and quantum programming languages.
In proceedings of
42nd ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
POPL 2015
),
pages 395-406.
doi:10.1145/2676726.2676999
[preprint:
pdf
M. P. Fiore and S. Staton.
Substitution, jumps, and algebraic effects.
In proceedings of
Joint meeting of
the Twenty-Third EACSL Annual Conference on
Computer Science Logic
and
the Twenty-Ninth Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science
CSL-LICS14
).
doi:10.1145/2603088.2603163
[preprint:
pdf
P. B. Levy and S. Staton.
Transition systems over games.
In proceedings of
Joint meeting of
the Twenty-Third EACSL Annual Conference on
Computer Science Logic
and
the Twenty-Ninth Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science
CSL-LICS14
).
doi:10.1145/2603088.2603150
[preprint:
pdf
R. E. Møgelberg and S. Staton.
Linear usage of state.
Logical Methods in Computer Science, Vol 10, Issue 1.
Special issue on Algebraic and Coalgebraic Methods in Computer Science
doi:10.2168/LMCS-10(1:17)2014
. Preprint: [
pdf
arxiv:1403.1477
S. Staton.
Freyd categories are enriched Lawvere theories.
In Proceedings of
Workshop on Algebra, Coalgebra and Topology
. Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 303:197-206.
2013
doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2014.02.010
[preprint:
pdf
| note:
txt
D. Ahman and S. Staton.
Normalization by evaluation and algebraic effects.
In Proceedings of
Twenty-Ninth Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics
MFPS 2013
).
Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 298:51-69. 2013.
doi:10.106/j.entcs.2013.09.007
. Preprint: [
pdf
S. Staton.
Instances of computational effects.
In Proceedings of
Twenty-Eighth Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on
Logic in Computer Science
LICS 2013
).
doi:10.1109/LICS.2013.58
[preprint:
pdf
| errata:
txt
S. Staton.
An algebraic presentation of predicate logic.
In Proceedings of
Sixteenth International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures
FOSSACS 2013
),
Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 7794:401-417. Springer, 2013.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-37075-5_26
[preprint:
pdf
[code:
flp.sml
S. Staton and P. Levy.
Universal properties for impure programming languages.
In Proceedings of
Fortieth ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
POPL 2013
),
pages 179-192.
doi:10.1145/2429069.2429091
[preprint:
pdf
R. E. Møgelberg and S. Staton.
Linearly-used state in models of call-by-value.
In Proceedings of
Fourth International Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science
CALCO 2011
).
Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 6859:293-313.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-22944-2_21
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Relating coalgebraic notions of bisimulation.
Logical Methods in Computer Science
Vol 7, Issue 1 (March 2011).
doi:10.2168/LMCS-7(1:13)2011
. Preprint: [
pdf
arXiv:1101.4223
S. Staton and G. Winskel.
On the expressivity of symmetry in event structures.
In Proceedings of
25th Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science
LICS 2010
), pages 392-401.
doi:10.1109/LICS.2010.37
[preprint:
pdf
R. E. Møgelberg and S. Staton.
Full abstraction in a metalanguage for state.
In Workshop on
Syntax and Semantics of Low Level Languages
LOLA 2010
).
Satellite workshop of LICS 2010.
T. Altenkirch, P. Levy and S. Staton.
Higher order containers.
In Proceedings of
Computability in Europe
CiE 2010
).
Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 6158:11-20.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13962-8_2
[preprint:
pdf
M. P. Fiore and S. Staton.
Positive structural operational semantics and monotone distributive laws.
Short contribution for
10th International Workshop on Coalgebraic Methods in Computer Science
CMCS 2010
). CWI Technical report
SEN-1004
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Completeness for algebraic theories of local state.
Proceedings of
13th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structure
FOSSACS 2010
). Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 6014:48-63.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-12032-9_5
[preprint:
pdf
| errata:
txt
S. Staton.
Relating coalgebraic notions of bisimulation, with applications to name-passing process calculi.
Proceedings of
3rd Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science
CALCO 2009
).
Lecture Notes in Comput. Sci. 5728:191-205.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03741-2_14
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Two cotensors in one:
Presentations of algebraic theories for
local state and fresh names.
Proceedings of
25th Conference on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics
MFPS 25
). Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 249:471-490. 2009.
doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2009.07.103
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Substitution in Structural Operational Semantics and value-passing process calculi.
Proceedings of
2nd International Workshop on Theory and Applications of Abstraction, Substitution and Naming
TAASN 2009
).
[preprint:
pdf
M. Fiore and S. Staton.
A Congruence Rule Format for Name-Passing Process Calculi.
Information and Computation Vol 207, Issue 2 (February 2009), Pages 209-236. Special Issue on Structural Operational Semantics.
doi:10.1016/j.ic.2007.12.005
. [preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
General Structural Operational Semantics through Categorical Logic.
Proceedings of
23rd Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science
LICS 2008
), pages 166-177.
doi:10.1109/LICS.2008.43
[preprint:
pdf
S. Staton.
Name-Passing Process Calculi: Operational Models and Structural Operational Semantics.
PhD thesis. Girton College, Cambridge.
Supervised by Marcelo Fiore,
and examined by Gordon Plotkin and Andrew Pitts.
Computer Laboratory Technical Report
UCAM-CL-TR-688
[Thesis summary:
pdf
M. P. Fiore and S. Staton.
A Congruence Rule Format for Name-Passing Process Calculi from Mathematical Operational Semantics.
Proceedings of
21st Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science
LICS 2006
), pages 49-58.
doi:10.1109/LICS.2006.7
[preprint:
pdf
M. P. Fiore and S. Staton.
Comparing operational models of name-passing process calculi.
Information and Computation Vol 204, Issue 4 (April 2006),
Pages 524-560.
doi:10.1016/j.ic.2005.08.004
[preprint:
pdf
].
Preliminary version in Proceedings of
7th International Workshop on Coalgebraic Methods
in Computer Science
(CMCS'04).
Electron. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. 106:91-104.
doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2004.02.025
[preprint:
pdf
Research Associates and Students
Some postdocs:
Elena Di Lavore
is a postdoc on a grant from ARIA Safeguarded AI.
Paolo Perrone
is a postdoc on my ERC Blast project
Mario Román
is a postdoc on my grant "Quantum programming via algebraic effects".
Ruben Van Belle
is a postdoc on my ERC Blast project
Zihuiwen Ye
is a postdoc on the ARIA SynthStats project.
I'm currently supervising DPhil/PhD students:
Nikolaj Jensen
Owen Lynch
Younesse Kaddar
Jacek Karwowski
Seo Jin Park
Razin Shaikh
Ned Summers
Théo Wang
I am also co-supervising
Nathan Corbyn
Maria Craciun
Jack Liell-Cock
Zev Shirazi
Some people I have supervised and worked with:
Pedro Amorim
was a postdoc on my
ERC Blast
project, now lecturer at the University of Bath;
Nick Hu
was a DPhil student cosupervised with Jamie Vicary, currently a postdoc in Birmingham;
Max Dore
was a DPhil student cosupervised with Samson Abramsky, currently a Departmental Lecturer in Oxford;
Lukas Heidemann
was a DPhil student cosupervised with Jamie Vicary, currently a researcher at Quantinuum;
Swaraj Dash
was a DPhil student (2017-2024), now Assistant Professor at Heriot Watt
Philip Saville
was a postdoc on my grant "Quantum programming via algebraic effects" (2021-2024), now a Lecturer at University of Sussex;
Satoshi Kura
was a JSPS overseas research fellow (2022-2024), now an Assistant Professor at Waseda University;
Mathieu Huot
was a DPhil student, now a postdoc at MIT;
Sean Moss
was an RA on my ERC grant, now an Assistant Professor in Birmingham;
Cristina Matache
was a DPhil student, now a postdoc in Edinburgh;
Hugo Paquet
was a postdoc on my Royal Society grant until Jan 2023, now holding a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Award in Paris;
Ohad Kammar
was an RA on my EPSRC grant
EP/N007387/1
and earlier on a grant from the Isaac Newton Trust;
now a Lecturer in Edinburgh;
Marcin Szymczak
was an RA on seed funding from the Alan Turing Institute, on a project with Scott Hale, Ohad Kammar, Helen Margetts, and Tom Melham;
Dario Stein
(DPhil on probabilistic programming, 2017-2021);
Sam Speight
was a DPhil student primarily supervised by Samson Abramsky,
Junghun Yoo
was a DPhil student primarily supervised by Hongseok Yang, now a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam;
Antonin Delpeuch
(DPhil on string diagrams, cosupervised with Jamie Vicary, 2021-2022);
Yuan Zhou
(DPhil on probabilistic programming cosupervised with Hongseok Yang, Tom Rainforth, Yee Whye Teh, and Frank Wood, 2016-2021);
Mathys Rennela
(PhD on quantum programming languages, 2013-2019);
Sander Uijlen
(PhD on quantum logic, 2013-2019, cosupervised with Aleks Kissinger and Bart Jacobs);
Ben Roberts
(PhD on information flow security for distributed programming languages, 2013);
Jad Ghalayini
(MSc project on dependent types);
Danel Ahman
(MPhil project on normalization by evaluation);
Ramana Kumar
(MPhil essay on formalizing set theory);
Kwok Cheung
(MPhil essay on algebraic effects and partiality);
Sohum Banerjea
(MPhil essay on inference programming languages).
Courses taught:
Principles of Programming Languages
in Oxford.
Statistical Probabilistic Programming
at Oxford, jointly with Luke Ong, Hugo Paquet and Paolo Perrone.
Probabilistic Programming
at Oregon PL Summer School 2019.
course
on coalgebra
jointly
with
Alexandra Silva
in Nijmegen.
Courses on
Discrete mathematics I
Semantics of programming languages
, and
Category theory and logic
in Cambridge.
Responsibilities and events
Steering committees
IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science
(LICS, 2015-)
Formal Structures in Computation and Deduction
(FSCD, 2017-2020)
Organizing committee of Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics
(MFPS, 2022-).
Editorial board member:
ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing
Programme committee member:
53rd ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (POPL 2026,
Associate Chair
); 40th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (
LICS 2025
); 41st Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (
MFPS 2025
); 34th European Symposium on Programming (
ESOP 2025
),
32nd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic 2024 (
CSL 2024
); 50th EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (
ICALP 2023
);
PC co-chair
: 6th Annual Conference on Applied Category Theory (
ACT 2023
);
26th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures (
FOSSACS 2023
);
7th International Conference on
Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction
FSCD 2022
);
49th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
POPL 2022
);
30th European Symposium on Programming (
ESOP 2021
); 25th Annual ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (
LICS 2020
); 24th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (
ICFP 2019
);
4th International Conference on Formal Structures for Computation and Deduction (
FSCD 2019
);
PC chair
: 34th Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (
MFPS XXXIV
);
42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer
Science
MFCS 2017
);
44th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming
Languages
POPL 2017
);
26th European Symposium on Programming
ESOP 2017
);
Workshop on Syntax and Semantics of Low-level Languages
LOLA 2016
);
10th International Workshop on Fixed Points in Computer Science
FICS 2015
);
6th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (
CALCO 2015
);
PC co-chair
: 30th Conference on Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics (
MFPS XXX
);
3rd ACM-SIGPLAN Workshop on Higher-Order Programming with Effects (
HOPE 2014
);
Combined 21st International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency and 11th Workshop on Structured Operational Semantics
EXPRESS/SOS 2014
);
11th International Workshop on Domain Theory and Applications (
Domains XI
);
18th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (
ICFP 2013
);
Workshop on Syntax and Semantics of Low-Level Languages (
LOLA 2013
);
5th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra in Computer Science (
CALCO 2013
);
21st Conference
on Computer Science Logic (
CSL 2012
), 4th Workshop on Mathematically
Structured Functional Programming (
MSFP 2012
); 11th International
Workshop on Coalgebraic Methods in Computer Science (
CMCS 2012
); 9th
Asian Symposium on Programming Languages and Systems (
APLAS 2011
);
4th Conference on Algebra and Coalgebra (
CALCO 2011
); 8th
International Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (
SOS 2011
);
7th International Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (
SOS 2010
). External review committee of 39th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium
on Principles of Programming Languages (
POPL 2012
).
Organizing committees
Scientific committee:
Logic of Probabilistic Programming at CIRM
(Jan 2022).
Local organizer:
ACT and MFPS 2024
LICS 2018
FSCD 2017
CALCO 2015
and
MFPS XXXI
International Conference on Category Theory (
CT 2014
);
Informal Workshop on Programming with Handlers (
Cambridge June 2013
).
Some recent/upcoming invited or keynote talks
TLLA 2025
NWPT 2024
PROBPROG Sep 2023
VERIPROP 2023
BCS-FACS 2022 Seminar
LAFI 2022
CMCS 2022
FSCD 2021
MFPS 2021
OWLS Jan 2021
CPS 2020
OPLSS 2019
CIE 2019
PIHOC 2019
ICALP 2018
STOC 2018
Logic and learning 2018
British Logic Colloquium 2017
Uncertainty
in Computation, 2016
QSLC 2016
WIP 2016
MFPS 2016
CHOCOLA, Jan 2016
S-REPLS2, Nov 2015
MFPS 2015