Dawson Engler
Also known as Dawson R. Engler
As of October 2026, Dawson Engler is an associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University. His bug-finding research includes machine learning for ranking error reports, and in 2025–26 he offered a Stanford course on using LLMs for low-level systems. He earned an MIT PhD in 1998 centered on the exokernel. In 2002 Coverity was founded at Stanford's Computer Systems Laboratory to commercialize his group's static analysis work. He received the SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award in 2006 and the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award in 2008.
- Now at
- Stanford University
- Works
- 133
- Citations
- 15,546
- h-index
- 50
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1995–1998
The exokernel operating system
He co-authors the exokernel paper at SOSP in 1995, and his MIT PhD in 1998 centers on the exokernel.
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2001
Bugs as deviant behavior
His 2001 SOSP paper, Bugs as Deviant Behavior, offers a general approach to inferring errors in systems code.
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2002
Coverity commercializes static analysis
In 2002 Coverity is founded at Stanford's Computer Systems Laboratory to commercialize his group's static analysis work.
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2004
Machine learning for error ranking
His error-ranking paper for FSE 2004 uses machine learning to reduce the observed false-positive rate 2 to 8 times compared with random ranking.
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2006
The SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award
He receives the SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award in 2006, an honor for creativity and innovation in operating systems research.
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2008
KLEE and the Hopper Award
In 2008 KLEE, written with Cristian Cadar and Daniel Dunbar, wins an OSDI best-paper award. He also receives the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award in 2008 for work on automated program checking and bug-finding.
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2025–2026
Teaching LLMs for low-level systems
In the 2025–26 academic year he offers CS 440LX, Effectively Using LLMs for Low-Level Systems, at Stanford.
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As of October 2026
Associate professor at Stanford
He is an associate professor of computer science and of electrical engineering at Stanford University, and he offers courses there for 2026–27.
Sources and credits
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