PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Corina S. Pasareanu

Also known as Corina S. Păsăreanu

Corina Pasareanu is a software researcher whose work connects program verification and AI systems. She worked on Symbolic Pathfinder and published a book on symbolic execution and quantitative reasoning. Her later research proposed axioms for neural-network interpretations, selected LLM-generated programs through ensemble comparisons, and combined language models with symbolic reasoning to formalize requirements. ACM named her a Fellow in 2023 for contributions to symbolic execution and compositional verification. As of October 2026, she works at Amazon PrimeAir and Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

Works
285
Citations
10,523
h-index
51
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1994–2001

    Computer science degrees

    She earns BS and MS degrees in computer science at the University Politehcnica of Bucharest in 1994 and 1995, then completes a computer science PhD at Kansas State University in 2001.

  2. 2010

    Symbolic PathFinder

    In 2010, she works as a Carnegie Mellon and Ames RSE researcher on Symbolic Pathfinder, a symbolic-execution tool that grows from Java Pathfinder. She receives the ACM Impact Paper Award and the ICSE Most Influential Paper Award in 2010.

  3. 2020

    Symbolic Execution and Quantitative Reasoning

    She publishes Symbolic Execution and Quantitative Reasoning: Applications to Software Safety and Security in 2020.

  4. 2023

    An ACM Fellowship

    ACM names her a 2023 Fellow for contributions to the development and application of symbolic execution and compositional verification.

  5. 2025

    ICSE co-chair and mechanistic interpretability

    In 2025, she serves as program co-chair for ICSE. At ICML 2025, she coauthors a paper that sets axioms for mechanistic interpretations of neural networks.

  6. 2026

    Selecting LLM-generated code

    In 2026, she coauthors an ensemble method that selects among LLM-generated programs by comparing syntax, semantic similarity, and behavioral equivalence.

  7. 2026

    Neurosymbolic requirement formalization

    In 2026, she and Joe Rutland present a method that combines neural language models with symbolic reasoning to convert informal requirements into executable representations for symbolic execution.

  8. As of October 2026

    Amazon PrimeAir and CyLab

    As of October 2026, she works at Amazon PrimeAir and Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

Career

  1. Since 2026Amazon
  2. Since 2010Carnegie Mellon UniversityRSE researcher
  3. 2010–2026NASARSE researcher
  4. 2006–2008Universities Space Research Association
  5. 2003–2007Kestrel Technology

Education

  1. 2001Kansas State UniversityPhD
  2. 1995University Politehnica of BucharestMS in computer science
  3. 1994University Politehnica of BucharestBS in computer science

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Bandera2000 · International Conference on Software Engineering · 1,059 citations
  2. Generalized Symbolic Execution for Model Checking and Testing2003 · Lecture notes in computer science · 571 citations
  3. Test input generation with java PathFinder2004 · ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA) · 510 citations
  4. Learning Assumptions for Compositional Verification2003 · Lecture notes in computer science · 401 citations
  5. Symbolic execution for software testing in practice2011 · International Conference on Software Engineering · 325 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. 14% of AI career moves in the 2020s went from a university to a companyIncludes Corina S. Pasareanu. Our estimates of how university-to-company career transitions changed by decade, including roles added alongside an earlier job.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.
  4. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labsIncludes Carnegie Mellon University. The median h-index is 53 at universities and 19 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, citations and moves to estimate how universities and frontier labs contribute to AI research.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Corina S. Pasareanu yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Corina Pasareanu - College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University engineering.cmu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Verification Tools Secure Online Shopping, Banking spinoff.nasa.gov. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Corina Pasareanu csauthors.net. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Corina Pasareanu and Elaine Shi named 2023 ACM Fellows cylab.cmu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. ICSE 2025 Organizing Committee conf.researchr.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Validating Mechanistic Interpretations: An Axiomatic Approach proceedings.mlr.press. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Enhancing LLM Code Generation with Ensembles: A Similarity-Based Selection Approach conf.researchr.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. SpecOps 2026 conf.researchr.org. Checked 19 October 2026.