Luca Cardelli • Curriculum Vitae • 2021
Short Bio
- Luca Cardelli was born near Montecatini
Terme, Italy, studied at the Liceo C.Salutati (high school) and the University
of Pisa (until 1978-07-12), and has a Ph.D. in
computer science from the University
of Edinburgh (1982-04-01). He worked at Bell
Labs, Murray Hill, from 1982-04-05 to 1985-09-20, at
Digital Equipment Corporation, Systems
Research Center in Palo
Alto, from 1985-09-30 to 1997-10-31, and at Microsoft
Research, in Cambridge
UK from 1997-11-03 to 2018-08-31 where he was head
of the Programming
Principles and Tools and Security
groups until 2012. Since 2018-09-01 he is a Royal
Society Research Professor at the University
of Oxford, Department of Computer Science (having
held that position part time already between 2013-09-01
and 2018-08-31).
- His main interests are in type theory and operational
semantics (for applications to language design, semantics,
and implementation), and in concurrency theory (for
applications to computer networks and to modeling
biological systems). He implemented the first compiler for
ML (one of the most
popular typed functional language, whose recent
incarnations are Caml
and F#)
and one of the earliest direct-manipulation user-interface
editors. He was a member of the Modula-3
design committee, and has designed a few experimental
languages, including Obliq:
a distributed higher-order scripting language (voted most
influential POPL'95 paper 10 years later), and Polyphonic
C#, a distributed extension of C#. His more
protracted research activity has been in establishing the
semantic and type-theoretic foundations of object-oriented
languages, resulting in the 1996 book "A
Theory of Objects" with Martin Abadi. More recently
he has focused on modeling global and mobile computation,
via the Ambient
Calculus and Spatial
Logics, which indirectly led to a current interest
in Systems Biology
, Molecular
Programming, and Stochastic
Systems.
- He has published over 100 papers, 1 book, and 3
proceedings as chair/editor (POPL'98, ECOOP'03, and DNA
2011). He has served in over 80 Program Committees, and as
editor of Theoretical Computer Science - Natural Computing
(Elsevier 2008..), Foundations and Trends in Theoretical
Computer Science (Now Publishers, 2005..), Transactions in
Computational Systems Biology (Springer
2004..),Mathematical Structures in Computer Science (CUP
2001..2007), Science of Computer Programming (North
Holland 1999..2006), Journal of Functional Programming
(CUP 1995..2004), and Theory and Practice of Object
Systems (Wiley 1994..1999).
- He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, an ACM Fellow, an
Elected Member of the Academia Europaea, an Elected Member
of AITO, and a long-standing member of EATCS and ISNSCE. His web page
is at lucacardelli.name.
Shorter Bio
Shorterer Bio with Links
Short Impact Statement
-
During three separate phases of his career, Luca
Cardelli has served as a chair of three area-defining
conferences: POPL 1998 (Principles of programming
languages), ECOOP 2003 (Object-oriented programming),
and DNA 2011 (DNA computing and molecular programming),
and received technical awards in each area. He is
coauthor with Martin Abadi of an influential book on
object-oriented principles (A Theory of Objects, 1996,
still in press). While working in industrial research
labs until 2018, his articles have collected over 27000
references, and at one point he was identified as the
3rd most acknowledged computer scientist (PNAS
0407743101, 2004).
On Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=npBTgSsAAAAJ&hl=en.
BioSketch
- NIH

Research Interests
- Programming Languages and Type Theory
- Polymorphism, subtyping, objects, modularization,
typechecking, semistructured data.
- Distributed Systems and Concurrency
- Concurrent programming, distribution, mobility,
global computation, process calculi, logics for
concurrency.
- Computational Biology
- Molecular Programming, Systems Biology, Natural
Computation, Quantitative Semantics.
Education
-
PhD in Computer
Science, Edinburgh University (1978-11 to 1982-04-01).
-
"Laurea" in Computer Science, University of Pisa (1973-10
to 1978-07-12).
Employment
- University of Oxford, Department of Computer Science: Emeritus Professor (2023-10-01.. ).
- University of Oxford, Department of Computer Science: Royal Society Research Professor (2018-09-01..2023-09-30).
- University of Oxford, Department of Computer Science:
Royal Society Research Professor - part time
(2013-10-01..2018-08-31).
- Microsoft Research, Cambridge UK
(1997-11-03..2018-08-31). Researcher (1997-11-03),
Assistant Director (2000-07-19), Principal Researcher
(2006-11-23..2018-08-31). Visiting Researcher (2018-09-01..2020-08-31). Head of the Programming
Principles and Tools Group and the Security Group
(2000-2012).
- Digital Equipment Corporation, Systems Research Center,
Palo Alto (1985-09-30..1997-10-31). Member of Research
Staff.
-
Department of Computer and Information Science,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
(1984-01..1984-12). Adjunct Professor.
- AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
(1982-04-05..1985-09-20). Member of Technical Staff,
Center 1127 - Computing Sciences Research.
Associations and Awards
Courses, Tutorials, and Lecture Series
- "Molecular Programming" Tutorial, Microsoft Research
Cambridge, February 11, 2010.
- "Molecules as Automata" Graduate Course, University of
Warsaw, March 12-13 and May 7-8, 2009.
- "Molecules as Automata" International Summer School on
Natural Computing, Bertinoro, September 21, 2008.
- "Artificial
Biochemistry" Graduate Course, University of Trento,
May 22-26, 2006.
- "Abstract Machines of Systems Biology" Summer School on
Biology Computation and Information, Dobbiaco, September
12-16, 2005.
- "Mobility and Spatial Logic", Lecture Series, 5th
International School on Formal Methods for the Design of
Computer, Communication and Software Systems: Mobile
Computing, Bertinoro, April 26-30, 2005.
- "Membrane Interactions", Lecture Series, International
School on Computational Sciences for Complex Systems in
Biology, Rovereto, April 17-24 2004.
- "Mobility and Spatial Logic", Lecture Series, 30eme
Ecole de Printemps, Agay, March 24-29, 2002.
- "Computation on Wide Area Networks", Lecture Series,
Lipari Summer School, July 1-14 2001.
- "Computation on Wide Area Networks", Cambridge
University Minicourse Lectures, May 8,9,15,16 2001
- "Mobility and Security", Lecture Series, Marktoberdorf
Summer School, July 27 - Aug 6 1999.
- "A Theory of Objects", Lecture Series, University of
Technology Sydney, August 4-15 1997.
- "A Theory of Objects", ECOOP Tutorial (with Martín
Abadi), Jyväskylä, June 9-13, 1997.
- "A Theory of Objects", OOPSLA Tutorial (with Martín
Abadi), San Jose October 6-10, 1996.
- "Object-Oriented Features", Lecture Series, ACM School
on Functional and Object-Oriented Programming (with Martín
Abadi), Sobotka, Poland, September 8-14, 1996.
- "Class-based vs. Object-based Languages", PLDI Tutorial,
1996.
- "Type-Driven Language Design", PLDI Tutorial, 1995.
- "Typed Foundations of Object-Oriented Programming", POPL
Tutorial, 1992.
- "Typeful Programming", Lecture Series, IFIP State of the
Art Seminar on Formal Description of Programming Concepts,
Bombay, Feb 21-27, 1992.
- "Typeful Programming", Lecture Series, IFIP State of the
Art Seminar on Formal Description of Programming Concepts,
CEDAV Serpro, Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 18-28
April 1989.
- "Semantic methods for object-oriented languages", OOPSLA
Tutorial (with John Mitchell), 1988.
- "Data Abstraction, Modularization, and Reusability",
Lecture Series, University of Texas Year of Programming,
1986.
- "Advanced Topics in Programming Languages",
One-semester Course (with Dave MacQueen), University of
Pennsylvania, Department of Computer and Information
Science, 1984.
Scientific Boards
- (2020-10..) Member of the Steering Committee for the CMSB: Computational Methods in Systems Biology conference.
- (2020..) Member of the "Collegio dei Docenti" for PhD course management at IMT Lucca.
- (2019-01-01..2024-12-31) Member of the Royal Society
Research Grants Board: Physical Sciences Panel.
- (2018..) Member of the Advisory Board of Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Non-Equilibirum Systems (CANES) at King's College London.
- (2009-08..2020-09) Member of the Steering Committee for the
annual conference on DNA
Computing and Molecular Programming.
- (2004..2018) Member of the Microsoft Research -
University of Trento Centre for Computational and Systems
Biology Board of Directors.
- (2015-01-01..2017-12-31) Member of the Royal Society
Research Appointments Panel A(iii).
- (2011-03..2015-02) Member of INRIA's Scientific Board.
- (2010-01..2012-12) Member of the Royal Society Dorothy
Hodgkin Fellowship Selection Panel - A Side.
- (2009..2012) Member of the Advisory Board for CRISP
Consortium (BBSRC Combinatorial Responses in Stress
Pathways)
- (2008..2012) Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for
CSBE (BBSRC EPSRC
Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh)
- (2007-05..2009-12) Member of the Royal Society Industry
Fellowship Scheme Joint Panel.
- (2007-01..2009-03) Member of the Royal Society Sectional
Committee 1.
- (2006-01..2008-12) Member of the Royal Society and
Académie des Sciences Microsoft European Science Award
Committee.
- (2006-01..2007-07) Member of the Royal Society Research
Grants Board A.
- (2004..2007) Member of the PhD Thesis External Review
Committee of the ICT Graduate School, University of
Trento.
Editorial Boards
- (2018..) Member of the Advisory Board of the Springer Natural
Computing Book Series.
- (2012..) Member of the Editorial Board, Electronic
Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science
(arXiv-published open access journal).
- (2008..) Member of the Editorial Board, Theoretical
Computer Science journal, series C - Theory of Natural Computing (TCS-C), Elsevier.
- (2014..2016) Subject Editor for Computer Science, Royal
Society Open Science.
- (2004..2012) Member of the Editorial Board,
Transactions on Computational Systems Biology, Springer.
- (2001..2007) Member of the Scientific Board,
Mathematical Structures in Computer Science (MSCS),
Cambridge University Press.
- (1999..2006) Member of the Editorial Board, Science of
Computer Programming (SCP), North Holland.
- (1995..2004) Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of
Functional Programming (JFP), Cambridge University Press.
- (1994..1999) Associate Editor, Theory and Practice of
Object Systems (TAPOS), Wiley.
Program Committees
- 2011: Program co-chair of the
International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular
Programming (DNA17).
- 2003: Program chair of the European
Conference on Object Oriented Programming (ECOOP'03).
- 1998: Program chair of the ACM
Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages
(POPL'98).
- CMSB'23, DNA'23, CMSB'22, DNA'22, DNA'21, CMSB'21, CMSB'20, SASB'19, CMSB'19, HSB'19, SASB'18, MolecularLogic'18,
VEMDP'18,
DNA24, CMSB'18, SASB'17, CMSB'17, DNA23,
DNA22, SASB'16,
CMSB'16,
HSB'16, HSB'15, DNA21,
CMSB'15,
DNA20, MeCBIC'14, CS2Bio'14, MeCBIC'13, Advances in
Molecular Programming and Computing workshop'13,
CS2Bio'13, MFPS
XXIX, CMSB'13, DNA19, MeCBIC'12, CS2Bio'12, DNA18,
CMSB'12, CONCUR'12,
Computability in Europe'12, DNA17 (Cochair), CS2Bio'11, SASB'11,
MeCBIC'10, AlgebraicNumericBiology'10, CS2Bio'10, CONCUR'10,
UnconventionalComputation'10,
DNA16, FBTC'10, Static Analysis in
Systems Biology'10 WS, ICSB'10
(Scientific Committee), Developments
in Computational Models'09 WS, EXPRESS'09 WS,
UnconventionalComputation'09, MeCBIC'08,
FBTC'08,
ECCB'08,
AlgebraicBiology'08, CMSB'08,
CMSB'07,
NETTAB'07,
AlgebraicBiology'07, QALP'07,
FBTC'07, CONCUR'07, CMSB'06,
ECOOP'06,
FOSSACS'06,
BioConcur'05, CMSB'05, ECOOP'05,
COORD'05, PLAN-X'05,
FM'05, TGC'05,
ESOP'05,
NETTAB'04 WS, BioConcur'04
WS, Express'04
WS, TCS'04,
CMSB'04,
ECOOP'04, EDBT'04, ASIAN'03,
OOPSLA'03,
BioConcur'03
WS, CSMB'03,,
Web Dynamics WS'02, TCS'02, MA'01, PDCIWNMC WS'01 (in
IPDPS'01), PODS'01, SAINT'01, FOOL'01, FOSSACS'01,
CONCUR'00, TCS'00, ECOOP'00, DBPL WS'99, ASAP'99, WESTAPP
WS'99, FOOL'99 (Chair), ESOP'99, PLILP/ALP'98, HLCL'98,
ECOOP'98, ESOP'98, POPL'98 (Chair), DSL'97, ECOOP'97,
Types in Compilation WS '97, Domain Specific Languages WS
'97, Nomadic Computing WS '97, ICDE'97, FASE'97, COORD'97,
FOOL'97, Agents WS ECOOP'96, ICFP'96, COORD'96, OOPSLA'95,
COOTS'95, MFPS'95, POPL'94, FPCA'91, OOPSLA'91, ECOOP'91,
ECOOP-OOPLSA'90, POPL'90, L&FP'88, LICS'87, FPCA'87.
Working Groups
- Founding Member, IFIP WG2.8 (Functional Programming),
1988..2000.
- Member, IFIP WG2.2 (Formal Description of Programming
Concepts), 1986..1995.
Patents
-
US patent 6,826,751 B1
granted 2004-11-30.
US patent 7,721,335 granted 2010-05-18.
Publications
Recent Publications • 2010
Books and Edited Proceedings
- A theory of objects.
Martín Abadi and Luca Cardelli. Springer, 1996.
- ECOOP 2003 -
Object-Oriented Programming. Luca Cardelli (Ed.).
17th European Conference, Darmstadt, Germany, July 2003,
Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2743,
Springer, 2003. ISBN 3-540-40531-3.
- POPL'98: The 25th ACM
SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming
Languages. Luca Cardelli (Ed.). The Association
for Computing Machinery, 1998. ACM ISBN 0-89791-979-3.
Journal Publications since 2000
- Computational Modeling
of the EGFR Network Elucidates Control Mechanisms
Regulating Signal Dynamics. Dennis Y.Q. Wang,
Luca Cardelli, Andrew Phillips, Nir Piterman, Jasmin
Fisher. BMC Systems Biology 2009, 3:118.
doi:10.1186/1752-0509-3-118.
- An Intuitive Modelling
Interface for Systems Biology. Ozan
Kahramanoğulları, Luca Cardelli, Emmanuelle Caron.
Developments in Computational Models 2009. Special issue
of IJSI (In press).
- A Programming Language
for Composable DNA Circuits. Andrew Phillips,
Luca Cardelli. Journal of the Royal Society Interface,
August 6, 2009 6:S419-S436.
- Turing Universality of
the Biochemical Ground Form. Luca Cardelli,
Gianluigi Zavattaro. Mathematical Structures in Computer
Science (In press).
- A Process Model of Actin
Polymerisation. Luca Cardelli, Emmanuelle Caron,
Philippa Gardner, Ozan Kahramanoğulları, Andrew Phillips.
Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science (ENTCS)
229(1) February 2009, 127-144.
- A Process Model of Rho
GTP-binding Proteins. Luca Cardelli, Emmanuelle
Caron, Philippa Gardner, Ozan Kahramanoğulları, Andrew
Phillips .Theoretical Computer Science. DOI
10.1016/j.tcs.2009.04.029. June 2009.
- On Process Rate
Semantics. Luca Cardelli. Theoretical Computer
Science 391(3) 190-215, Elsevier, 2008. DOI:
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2007.11.012>
- Bitonal Membrane Systems
- Interactions of Biological Membranes. Luca
Cardelli. Theoretical Computer Science 404(1-2), Elsevier,
September 2008, pp. 5-18. DOI:
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2008.04.016>
- Compositionality,
Stochasticity and Cooperativity in Dynamic Models of
Gene Regulation. Ralf Blossey, Luca Cardelli,
Andrew Phillips. HFSP Journal, 2(1):17–28 February 2008.
- Ambient Logic.
Luca Cardelli and Andrew D. Gordon. Mathematical
Structures in Computer Science. In Press.
- A Graphical
Representation for Biological Processes in the
Stochastic Pi-calculus. Andrew Phillips, Luca
Cardelli, Giuseppe Castagna.Transactions on Computational
Systems Biology VII - Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
Vol 4230, Springer 2006, ISBN: 978-3-540-48837-8, pp
123-152.
- A Compositional Approach
to the Stochastic Dynamics of Gene Networks. Ralf
Blossey, Luca Cardelli, Andrew Phillips. Transactions on
Computational Systems Biology IV - Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, Vol 3939, Springer 2006, ISBN:
3-540-33245-6, pp 99-122.
- A Universality Result
for a (Mem)Brane Calculus Based on Mate/Drip Operations.
Luca Cardelli, Gheorghe Păun. International Journal of
Foundations of Computer Science, 17(1), pp 49-68. World
Scientific Publishing Company. 2006.
- Abstract Machines of
Systems Biology. Luca Cardelli.Transactions on
Computational Systems Biology. III, LNBI 3737, pp 145-168,
Springer 2005.
- Deciding Validity in a
Spatial Logic for Trees. Cristiano Calcagno, Luca
Cardelli, Andrew D. Gordon. Journal of Functional
Programming, Vol 15, pp 543-572. Cambridge University
Press, 2005.
- Secrecy and Group
Creation. Luca Cardelli, Giorgio Ghelli, Andrew
D. Gordon. Information and Computation.Volume 196, Issue
2, 29 January 2005, Pages 127-155.
- Modern Concurrency
Abstractions for C#. Nick Benton, Luca Cardelli,
Cedric Fournet. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages
and Systems (TOPLAS) 26(5), September 2004. pp.269-804.
- BioAmbients: An
Abstraction for Biological Compartments. Aviv
Regev, Ekaterina M. Panina, William Silverman, Luca
Cardelli, Ehud Shapiro. Theoretical Computer Science,
Special Issue on Computational Methods in Systems Biology.
Volume 325, Issue 1 , 28 September 2004, Pages 141-167.
Elsevier.
- TQL: A Query Language
for Semistructured Data Based on the Ambient Logic.
Luca Cardelli, Giorgio Ghelli. Mathematical Structures in
Computer Science. Vol 14. Cambridge University Press.
2004. pp 285-327.
- A Spatial Logic for
Concurrency (Part II). Luis Caires and Luca
Cardelli. Theoretical Computer Science, 322(3) pp.
517-565, September 2004.
- A Spatial Logic for
Concurrency (Part I). Luis Caires and Luca
Cardelli. Information and Computation, Vol 186/2 November
2003. pp 194-235.
- Equational Properties of
Mobile Ambients. Andrew D. Gordon and Luca
Cardelli. Mathematical Structures in Computer Science
13(3):371-408, June 2003.
- Types for the Ambient
Calculus. Luca Cardelli, Giorgio Ghelli, and
Andrew D. Gordon. Information and Computation, 177(2),
2002. pp. 160-194.
Conference and Book Chapter Publications since 2000
- Processes in Space. Luca
Cardelli, Philippa Gardner. Computability in Europe 2010,
Springer 2010 (In press).
- Strand Algebras for DNA
Computing. Luca Cardelli. DNA Computing and
Molecular Programming. 15th International Conference, DNA
15, Fayetteville, AR, USA, June 2009, Revised Selected
Papers. LNCS 5877, Springer, October 2009, pp 12-24.
- Artificial Biochemistry.
Luca Cardelli. In A.Condon, D.Harel, J.N.Kok, A.Salomaa,
E.Winfree (Eds.) Algorithmic Bioprocesses. Springer 2009.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-88869-7_22.
- Termination Problems in
Chemical Kinetics. Gianluigi Zavattaro, Luca
Cardelli. 19th International Conference on Concurrency
Theory, CONCUR 2008, August 2008, Toronto.
- On the Computational
Power of Biochemistry. Luca Cardelli, Gianluigi
Zavattaro. Third International Conference on Algebraic
Biology, AB 2008, July 2008, Linz.
- From Processes to ODEs
by Chemistry. Luca Cardelli. Fifth IFIP
International Conference on Theoretical Computer Science,
TCS 2008, 261-281, Milan, September 2008. DOI:
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09680-3_18>
- Manipulating Trees with
Hidden Labels. Luca Cardelli, Philippa Gardner,
and Giorgio Ghelli. Computation, Meaning end Logic:
Articles dedicated to Gordon Plotkin. ENTCS Electronic
Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, Vol 172, 2007. pp.
177-201.
- Efficient, Correct
Simulation of Biological Processes in Stochastic
Pi-calculus. Andrew Phillips, Luca Cardelli.
Proc. Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB 2007,
Edinburgh, September 2007. LNBI 4695, 184-199, Springer
2007.
- A Process Algebra Master
Equation. Luca Cardelli. Fourth International
Conference on the Quantitative Evaluation of Systems, QEST
2007, Edinburgh, September 2007. IEEE Publishing, ISBN:
978-0-7695-2883-0, pp 219-224, 2007.
- Greedy Regular
Expression Matching. Alain Frisch and Luca
Cardelli. Automata, Languages and Programming: 31st
International Colloquium, ICALP 2004, Turku, Finland, July
12-16, 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3142.
Springer 2004.ISBN 3-540-22849-7. pp. 618-629.
- Brane Calculi -
Interactions of Biological Membranes. Luca
Cardelli. Computational Methods in Systems Biology.
International Conference CMSB 2004, Paris, France, May
2004, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Vol 3082, Springer, 2005. ISBN 3-540-25375-0. pp
257-280.
- Type systems.
Luca Cardelli. Allen B. Tucker (Ed.): The Computer Science
and Engineering Handbook. CRC Press, 2004. Chapter 97.
- A Spatial Logic for
Querying Graphs. Luca Cardelli, Philippa Gardner,
and Giorgio Ghelli. Automata, Languages, and Programming,
29th International Colloquium, ICALP 2002, Malaga, Spain,
July 2002, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science,
Vol 2380, Springer, 2002. ISBN 3-540-43864-5. pp 597-610.
- Logical Properties of
Name Restriction. Luca Cardelli and Andrew D.
Gordon. Typed Lambda Calculi and Applications. 5th
International Conference, TLCA 2001, Krakow, Poland, May
2001, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol.
2044, Springer, 2001. ISBN 3-540-41960-8. pp 46-60.
- Anytime, Anywhere. Modal
Logics for Mobile Ambients. Luca Cardelli and
Andrew D. Gordon. Proceedings of the 27th ACM Symposium on
Principles of Programming Languages, 2000. pp 365-377.
- Ambient Groups and
Mobility Types. Luca Cardelli, Giorgio Ghelli,
and Andrew D. Gordon. Theoretical Computer Science;
Exploring New Frontiers in Theoretical Informatics.
International Conference IFIP TCS 2000, Sendai, Japan,
August 2000, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer
Science, Vol. 1872, Springer, 2000. ISBN 3-540-67823-9.
pp. 333-347.
- Mobile Ambients.
Luca Cardelli and Andrew D. Gordon. Theoretical Computer
Science, Special Issue on Coordination, D. Le Mtayer
Editor. Vol 240/1, June 2000. pp 177-213.
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