York academic awarded Royal Society grant

Posted on Wednesday 10 June 2015

Dr Mike Dodds, an Anniversary Lecturer in York’s Department of Computer Science, is one of four recipients of the prestigious grant. It is awarded to academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry.

Dr Dodds will collaborate with Microsoft Research Ltd to work on high performance algorithms that ensure computational correctness, known as Principled Reasoning about ‘Liveness’.

He explains: “Computer systems are rapidly becoming more complex, making it difficult to ensure they are reliable and secure. At the heart of concurrent software are high-performance algorithms which manage communication and distribute work. Despite considerable effort, ensuring correctness for these key components remains extremely challenging. My research is about formal verification: using rigorous mathematics to guarantee reliability.

“In this fellowship, I will work with Microsoft on ensuring algorithms eventually produce desired outcomes or `liveness'. Liveness is a key property for system designers, and liveness verification for real-world algorithms will require us to make both practical and theoretical innovations.

“I'm delighted to have been awarded this fellowship by the Royal Society. Microsoft Research are one of the world’s leading centres of verification research, and I'm very excited to have the opportunity to work closely with them.”

The full list of latest Royal Society Industry Fellowships recipients is:

• Dr Mike Dodds, University of York
• Dr Nathan Griffiths from the University of Warwick to work on The Self-Learning and Connected Car at Jaguar Land Rover
• Dr Nicholas Ekins-Daukes from Imperial College London to work on Near-Infrared Absorbers for High Efficiency Multi-Junction Solar Cells at IQE PLC
• Dr Rachel Smith from University of Sheffield to work on Spray Coating of Powders and Liquid Contact Transfer: Prediction and Scale-Up at Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Ltd.

The Royal Society Industry Fellowship scheme is funded by the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Biotechnolocy and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, Rolls Royce and BP. The scheme provides each scientist’s basic salary for the duration of their secondment, which lasts for up to two years full-time or four years part-time.