The story of my life
The short version goes like this:
I grew up in a sleepy small town called Kulmbach in Bavaria, Germany, where my
parents had a nice restaurant in the castle overlooking the town.
I have two younger sisters, one a medical doctor, the other one an
accomplished Karateka (vice world champion) with a PhD in Chemistry.
I received my degree in Computer Science
from Technische Universität Munich, where I also did my PhD. My wife
and I now live in Sydney, Australia, where I work on software verification.
For the long version or a proper CV, contact me personally.
What I find interesting
My professional interest is in what people call Formal Methods, more specifically in
interactive theorem proving, software verification, and semantics of programming languages.
Generally, I want software systems to be dependable, and I think that formal
specification and proof can make a significant contribution towards that goal.
My background is in compiler construction (which inspired me to write JFlex),
user interfaces (on which I did my degree), software engineering (on which I spent many of my undergrad years),
and, of course, logic, theorem-proving and semantics (on which I did my PhD).
See my projects and publications
for a sample of what I have worked on. I am known for the formal verification of the seL4 microkernel and
my work in interactive theorem proving.
When I am not proving theorems, teaching students, or writing open source software, I
might be spotted reading books (ranging from SF to linguistics and history), hiking in the Outback, going to
the cinema or enjoying Sydney's beautiful beaches. I have long been fascinated by martial arts,
having done Judo as a kid, later Karate, Taiji Quan, and Russian Systema.
