Posted: 1st October 2024

Professor Nobuko Yoshida, the Christopher Strachey Chair of Computing, is the new head of the Programming Languages research theme, which facilitates the department’s cutting-edge work in programming language theory, design and implementation. 

The department’s world-leading research is conducted across ten themes, which span the broad spectrum of computer science, ranging from foundational discoveries to interdisciplinary work with significant real-world impact. Nobuko’s appointment sees five of the ten themes now headed by women, joining Leslie Ann Goldberg (Algorithms and Complexity Theory), Marta Kwiatkowska (Automated Verification), Blanca Rodriguez (Computational Biology and Health Informatics), and Niki Trigoni (Systems). 

Nobuko joined the department from Imperial College London in 2022 as the Christopher Strachey Chair of Computing. The Christopher Strachey Chair is the department’s oldest chair, named after the founder of Oxford’s Programming Research Group in 1965. The post has previously been held by Sir Tony Hoare and Professor Samson Abramsky.  

Nobuko’s research focuses on the development of theories and semantic concepts in programming languages, and on their use in concurrent and distributed systems. Her particular interest is in session types, a type-based approach to the verification of message-passing programs. In 2008, she introduced the theory of Multiparty Session Types, which went on to receive the Most Influential Paper Award at ACM’s Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages in 2018. Nobuko is a Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College, an EPSRC Established Career Fellow, an Honorary Fellow at Glasgow University, and a Fellow of the British Computing Society.