PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Philip Wadler

Also known as Philip L. Wadler, Phil Wadler, Philip Lee Wadler

Philip Wadler is a computer scientist who started out in artificial intelligence at Carnegie Mellon and went on to become a principal designer of the Haskell programming language. After a mathematics degree at Stanford in 1977 and a doctorate at Carnegie Mellon in 1984, he worked at Oxford, Glasgow, Bell Labs and Avaya Labs. At Glasgow he contributed type classes to Haskell with Stephen Blott in 1989 and monads with Simon Peyton Jones in 1993. Edinburgh gave him its Chair of Theoretical Computer Science in 2003, he received the ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award in 2016, and the Royal Society elected him a Fellow in 2023. He is a retired Professor of Theoretical Computer Science at Edinburgh's Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, and in 2026 he sits on the Royal Society's Milner Award Committee.

Now at
Input Output Global
Born
1956
Badges

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. 1977–1984

    Stanford and a Carnegie Mellon doctorate

    He earns a mathematics degree at Stanford in 1977, where John McCarthy teaches him to program in Lisp. At Carnegie Mellon he studies artificial intelligence, with Herbert Simon as supervisor for his first two years, turns to programming languages, and completes his PhD in 1984 on 'Listlessness is better than laziness' under Nico Habermann.

  2. 1983–1996

    Oxford, Glasgow and Haskell

    He is a research fellow in Oxford's Programming Research Group from 1983 to 1987, and he creates the Orwell language in 1984. From 1987 to 1996 he rises from lecturer to reader to professor at the University of Glasgow, where he is a principal designer of Haskell. He contributes type classes with Stephen Blott in 1989 and monads with Simon Peyton Jones in 1993.

  3. 1996–2003

    Bell Labs and Avaya Labs

    He is a member of technical staff at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, from 1996 to 1999 and then at Avaya Labs until 2003. His work there includes GJ, or Generic Java, and the 1999 Featherweight Java, a formal model of Java that fits on one sheet of paper; he is also involved in adding generic types to Java 5.0. At Avaya Labs he publishes a paper on XQuery, a language for querying XML.

  4. 2003

    Chair at Edinburgh

    He takes up the Chair of Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh in 2003, a position first created for Robin Milner. In 2003, the Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages gives him its most influential paper award for 'Imperative functional programming', written with Simon Peyton Jones in 1993.

  5. 2016

    The SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award

    In 2016, he receives the ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Service Award for his work as PC chair of ICFP and POPL, founding editor and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Functional Programming, and chair of the SIGPLAN executive committee. He is also responsible for introducing Functional Pearls as a paper class, which ICFP and POPL adopt regularly.

  6. Since 2018

    Plutus and a book on Agda

    Since 2018, he is a senior research fellow and area leader for programming languages at IOHK, now Input Output Global, the blockchain engineering company developing Cardano, and he is co-creator of its Plutus smart contract language with Manuel Chakravarty. In 2018, he also co-authors Programming Language Foundations in Agda, an introduction to programming language theory that uses the Agda proof assistant.

  7. 2023

    Fellow of the Royal Society

    He is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2023 for research that has advanced the theory and practice of programming languages and influenced the design of Java, Go, Swift and Haskell. The honour follows his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005 and as an ACM Fellow in 2007.

  8. As of October 2026

    Retired professor at Edinburgh

    He is a retired Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. He sits on the Royal Society's Milner Award Committee from January 2026 to December 2028 and on its International Exchanges Committee from January 2024 to December 2026.

Career

  1. Since 2018Input Output GlobalSenior research fellow and area leader for programming languages
  2. 1999–2003AvayaMember of technical staff
  3. 1996–1999Bell LabsMember of technical staff
  4. 1987–1996University of GlasgowLecturer, Reader, Professor
  5. 1983–1987University of OxfordResearch fellow
  6. University of EdinburghRetired Professor of Theoretical Computer Science

Education

  1. 1984Carnegie Mellon UniversityPhD
  2. 1977Stanford UniversityMathematics degree

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Oxford. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of Oxford. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. Companies supply the most prior-work hires at 7 of the 9 frontier AI labsIncludes University of Oxford. Our estimates of the organizations where 550 people worked directly before joining 9 frontier AI labs across 620 career transitions, comparing the main feeder organizations per lab.
  4. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes University of Oxford. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Philip Wadler yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Philip Wadler - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Wadler follows the giants of science - Input | Output iog.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Professor Philip Wadler FRS | Royal Society Fellow royalsociety.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Distinguished Service Award sigplan.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Lambda Days 2018 lambdadays.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Programming Language Foundations in Agda – Table of Contents plfa.github.io. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Remarkable scientists join Royal Society | News | The University of Edinburgh ed.ac.uk. Checked 22 October 2026.