The Milner Lecture
Before he left Edinburgh for Cambridge, Robin Milner very kindly donated a sum of money to fund an annual lecture in Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh, to be given
... by someone from outside the University who has done or is doing excellent and original theoretical work which has a perceived significance for practical computing. The spirit of the proposal is to keep a live connection between theory and application in computer science.
The Milner Lecture takes place in the Summer term, and is a public lecture, open to all. The speaker visits for several days and usually gives one or more other technical talks. In recent years these have been coordinated with the Informatics Jamboree.
Robin Milner was one of the founding members and the first director of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science. He now works in Cambridge where he holds a Research Professorship in the Computer Laboratory.
Past lecturers
- 2009
- Professor Moshe Vardi, Rice University And Logic Begat Computer Science: When Giants Roamed the Earth.
- 2008
- Professor Rajeev Alur, University of Pennsylvania: Software Model Checking.
- 2007
- Ronald Fagin, IBM (Almaden): Finite Model Theory - How It All Began.
- 2006
- Shafi Goldwasser, MIT: On the Impossibility of Obfuscation.
- 2005
- Gérard Huet, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA): Design of a computational linguistics platform.
- 2004
- Mihalis Yannakakis, Columbia University: Testing, Optimization, and Games.
- 2003
- Frank Kelly, Statistical Laboratory, University of Cambridge: Fairness of Internet Protocols.
- 2002
- Martín Abadi, University of California, Santa Cruz: Security Protocols: Principles and Calculi. (Streaming video: QuickTime, Windows Media.)
- 2001
- Christos Papadimitriou, Berkeley: Algorithmic Problems Related to the Internet. (Streaming video: rm.)
- 2000
- Joseph Halpern, Cornell University: Knowledge and Common Knowledge in Multi-Agent Systems. (Streaming video: rm.)
- 1999
- Butler Lampson, Microsoft Research: Computer Security in the Real World.
- 1998
- Amir Pnueli, Weizmann Institute: Temporal Logic for Verification of Reactive Systems.
- 1997
- Les Valiant, Harvard University: Cognitive Computation.
- 1996
- Gerard Berry, Ecole des Mines and INRIA, Sophia-Antipolis: Synchronous Programming of Reactive Systems.
Nominations for future lecturers
The Director of LFCS makes the selection of each year's Milner Lecturer, following a periodic call for nominations. To make a nomination, contact David Aspinall. Please include a brief case for support, explaining why your nominee fits the description quoted above, mentioning the nature of their theoretical work and its significance for practical computing. Nominations are carried over from one year to the next.