George Necula
Encyclopedia
George Ciprian Necula is a Romania
n computer scientist
and professor at the University of California, Berkeley
who does research in the area of programming language
s and software engineering
, with a particular focus on software verification
and formal methods
. He is best known for his Ph.D. thesis work first describing proof-carrying code
, a work that received the 2007 SIGPLAN Most Influential POPL Paper Award.
Originally from Baia Mare
, Romania
, Necula attended the Polytechnic University of Bucharest
before coming to Carnegie Mellon University
in the United States to complete his Ph.D. under programming languages researcher Peter Lee. His Ph.D. thesis first describing proof-carrying code
was influential as a mechanism to allow untrusted machine code to run safely without performance overhead. He joined as faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
in 1998.
More recently, Necula's work has focused on open-source analysis, verification, and transformation tools for C
, including C Intermediate Language
(CIL), CCured http://hal.cs.berkeley.edu/ccured/, and Deputy http://deputy.cs.berkeley.edu/.
(see Sloan Fellowship
). He received the Grace Murray Hopper Award
in 2001, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1999, and the ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award in 2006.
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and professor at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
who does research in the area of programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s and software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
, with a particular focus on software verification
Software verification
Software verification is a broader and more complex discipline of software engineering whose goal is to assure that software fully satisfies all the expected requirements.There are two fundamental approaches to verification:...
and formal methods
Formal methods
In computer science and software engineering, formal methods are a particular kind of mathematically-based techniques for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware systems...
. He is best known for his Ph.D. thesis work first describing proof-carrying code
Proof-Carrying Code
Proof-carrying code is a software mechanism that allows a host system to verify properties about an application via a formal proof that accompanies the application's executable code. The host system can quickly verify the validity of the proof, and it can compare the conclusions of the proof to...
, a work that received the 2007 SIGPLAN Most Influential POPL Paper Award.
Originally from Baia Mare
Baia Mare
Baia Mare is a municipality in northwestern Romania and the capital of Maramureş County. The city is situated about 600 kilometres from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, 70 kilometres from the border with Hungary and 50 kilometres from the border with Ukraine...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Necula attended the Polytechnic University of Bucharest
Polytechnic University of Bucharest
Universitatea Politehnica din Bucureşti is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in 1864 based on the older technical school of Gheorghe Lazăr and it was renamed "Politehnica" in 1920.-History:...
before coming to Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
in the United States to complete his Ph.D. under programming languages researcher Peter Lee. His Ph.D. thesis first describing proof-carrying code
Proof-Carrying Code
Proof-carrying code is a software mechanism that allows a host system to verify properties about an application via a formal proof that accompanies the application's executable code. The host system can quickly verify the validity of the proof, and it can compare the conclusions of the proof to...
was influential as a mechanism to allow untrusted machine code to run safely without performance overhead. He joined as faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1998.
More recently, Necula's work has focused on open-source analysis, verification, and transformation tools for C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, including C Intermediate Language
C Intermediate Language
CIL is a simplified subset of the C programming language, as well as a set of tools for transforming C programs into that language.Several other tools use CIL as a way to have access to a C abstract syntax tree...
(CIL), CCured http://hal.cs.berkeley.edu/ccured/, and Deputy http://deputy.cs.berkeley.edu/.
Awards
Necula is a Fellow of the Okawa Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan FoundationAlfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic non-profit organization in the United States. It was established in 1934 by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., then-President and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.-Overview:...
(see Sloan Fellowship
Sloan Fellowship
The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This is distinct from the Sloan Fellows in business....
). He received the Grace Murray Hopper Award
Grace Murray Hopper Award
The original Grace Murray Hopper Awards have been awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery since 1971. The award goes to a young computer professional who makes a single, significant technical or service contribution.-Recipients:* 1971 Donald E. Knuth* 1972 Paul H. Dirksen* 1972 Paul H...
in 2001, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1999, and the ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award in 2006.