PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alexandra Silva

Alexandra Silva is a computer scientist whose work spans formal methods, programming languages and the verification of network and AI software. She earned a mathematics and computer science degree at the University of Minho in 2006, then pursued a PhD on Kleene coalgebra at CWI and defended her thesis at Radboud University in 2010. Her academic career took her through a Cornell postdoc, an assistant professorship in Nijmegen and a professorship at UCL before she joined Cornell faculty in 2021. Her 2015 work includes a coalgebraic algorithm for deciding NetKAT equivalence; between 2015 and 2018, she received an ERC Starting Grant, the Leverhulme Prize, the Presburger Award and the BCS Roger Needham Award. She is a professor of computer science at Cornell Bowers and co-leads AI4AI, which develops safety protocols for AI agents and software.

Timeline

  1. 2006

    A mathematics and computing degree

    She completes a five-year degree in mathematics and computer science at the University of Minho in 2006.

  2. 2010

    A PhD on Kleene coalgebra

    Her doctoral research takes place at CWI under Jan Rutten and Marcello Bonsangue. She defends her thesis, Kleene Coalgebra, at Radboud University in 2010 with a cum laude distinction.

  3. 2015

    A coalgebraic NetKAT algorithm

    In 2015, she coauthors A Coalgebraic Decision Procedure for NetKAT. The paper develops the coalgebraic theory and an efficient algorithm for deciding NetKAT equivalence through bisimulation.

  4. 2015–2018

    Presburger and Needham awards

    She receives an ERC Starting Grant in 2015, the Leverhulme Prize in 2016 and the Presburger Award in 2017. BCS names her the Roger Needham Award winner in 2018.

  5. By 2020

    From Cornell to UCL

    After her doctorate, she completes a Cornell postdoc with Dexter Kozen, then becomes an assistant professor in Nijmegen and moves to UCL. By 2020, she is a professor in UCL's Department of Computer Science, exploring automata-learning algorithms and concurrency in NetKAT.

  6. 2021

    Joining Cornell faculty

    In 2021, she joins Cornell's faculty in computer science.

  7. As of October 2026

    Cornell professor and AI4AI PI

    As of October 2026, she is a professor of computer science at Cornell Bowers and co-leads AI4AI with Vitaly Shmatikov. In June 2026, Cornell establishes the initiative to develop safety protocols for AI agents and the code they produce. Her research covers formal methods, programming languages and automated reasoning, with applications in networking and probabilistic reasoning.

Career

  1. NowCornell UniversityProfessor of Computer Science
  2. NowCornell UniversityPrincipal Investigator and co-lead, AI4AI (Assured Integrity for AI-Based Software)
  3. From 2021Cornell UniversityFaculty
  4. Cornell UniversityPostdoc
  5. University College LondonProfessor
  6. Radboud University NijmegenAssistant Professor

Education

  1. 2010National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the NetherlandsDoctoral research
  2. 2010Radboud University NijmegenPhD
  3. 2006University of MinhoDegree in mathematics and computer science

From the biography.

Checked career sources: cs.cornell.edu, pl.cs.cornell.edu, assuredintegrity.ai.cornell.edu, assuredintegrity.ai.cornell.edu, news.cornell.edu, blog.sigplan.org.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Alexandra Silva | Department of Computer Science | Cornell Bowers cs.cornell.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. A Coalgebraic Decision Procedure for NetKAT - Princeton University collaborate.princeton.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. BCS Needham Lecture 2019 | BCS bcs.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. The BCS Needham Lecture 2019 | BCS bcs.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. People of PL: Alexandra Silva | SIGPLAN Blog blog.sigplan.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Remembering Priya Srikumar | PL @ Cornell pl.cs.cornell.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. AI4AI - Assured Integrity for AI-Based Software @ Cornell University assuredintegrity.ai.cornell.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Team - AI4AI assuredintegrity.ai.cornell.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Amazon partnership establishes Cornell AI security initiative | Cornell Chronicle news.cornell.edu. Checked 27 October 2026.