Hanne Riis Nielson (born 1954) [1] is a computer scientist specializing in formal methods and static program analysis, particularly for applications involving computer security and software safety.
As Hanne Riis, she earned a master's degree from Aarhus University with the 1980 thesis Subclasses of Attribute Grammars. [2] She completed a Ph.D. in 1984 at the University of Edinburgh, with the dissertation Hoare Logics for Run-Time Analysis of Programs, supervised by Gordon Plotkin. [3]
She was a professor in computer science and engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, where she headed the Section on Language Based Technology. [4]
Nielson's books include:
In 2016, a festschrift was published in honor of the 60th birthdays of Nielson and Flemming Nielson. [1]
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The Z notation is a formal specification language used for describing and modelling computing systems. It is targeted at the clear specification of computer programs and computer-based systems in general.
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In computer science, formal methods are mathematically rigorous techniques for the specification, development, analysis, and verification of software and hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expectation that, as in other engineering disciplines, performing appropriate mathematical analysis can contribute to the reliability and robustness of a design.
In computer science, program analysis is the process of automatically analyzing the behavior of computer programs regarding a property such as correctness, robustness, safety and liveness. Program analysis focuses on two major areas: program optimization and program correctness. The first focuses on improving the program’s performance while reducing the resource usage while the latter focuses on ensuring that the program does what it is supposed to do.
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Samson Abramsky is Professor of Computer Science at University College London. He was previously the Christopher Strachey Professor of Computing at Wolfson College, Oxford, from 2000 to 2021.
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