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Since September 2007, I've been a postdoc with the Computation and Logic Group at McGill University in Montreal. My primary work here is on Beluga, a programming language with higher-order abstract syntax, in which variable binders in data are represented as variable binders in the computation, and explicit contexts. I received my Ph.D. from CMU, where I worked with Frank Pfenning on refined type systems for programming languages, which allow programmers to state, and compilers to check, more invariants about programs. Go ahead, read my dissertation. For all the scandalous details about my professional life, see my CV. This postdoctoral position ends in August 2010; I'm looking for a second postdoc in Canada, Europe or the United States, or a tenure-track position in Canada or Europe. |
Parc Jean-Drapeau in spring |
August 2009: I presented Greedy bidirectional polymorphism at the ML Workshop in Edinburgh.
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One is open access to research: in most scientific disciplines, research is funded by the public and then published in journals that neither the public nor the research community can freely access. There is no coherent justification for this situation; it is a historical accident resulting from the need to physically distribute (a relatively small number of) copies of journals, at significant cost. With the Internet, the cost of distribution is practically nil. The only rational defense of the current situation comes from journal publishers, who are myopically defending their own interests. I'm fortunate to work in a field that, unlike most, has been practicing open access (albeit very informally) for years; I believe we still have an obligation to learn about and support efforts in other fields. For these reasons, I read Open Access News and the AMSCI mailing list, and signed the petition in support of FRPAA, which would mandate open access for all research funded by the US government.
I'm also concerned about sexism—overt and covert—in academia. There's clear evidence that men and women both unconsciously discriminate against women in a variety of ways. Educate yourself and try to, at least, not contribute to the problem (though you'll find that's not as easy as it might seem).
(On a related note, singular "they" is perfectly correct English. If you disagree, consider the evidence and this lovely Language Log post.)
Pointer to allow Google to recover links to ITRS '08 material