Yang, Hongseok
Professor
Programming Languages. Machine Learning
Hongseok Yang is a professor at the School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), Korea. His research interests are programming languages and machine learning. He is interested in foundational questions in these areas, as well as problems arising at the intersection of these areas with other fields, such as probability theory, combinatorics, category theory, computational complexity, computer systems, and distributed computing. He has made fundamental contributions to a range of topics in programming languages and machine learning, including program logics, automated software verification, concurrent and distributed systems, probabilistic inference, and probabilistic programming. In particular, he received the 2016 CAV Award, together with his colleagues, for contributions to the development and automation of separation logic.
Hongseok received his Ph.D. in 2001 from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at KAIST from 2001 to 2003 and at Seoul National University from 2003 to 2006. After completing his postdoctoral training, he joined Queen Mary University of London, UK, as a lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor in the US), where he worked for about five years before moving to the University of Oxford. At Oxford, he served first as an associate professor (2011–2014) and then as a full professor (2014–2017). While at Oxford, he also held a tutorial fellowship at Worcester College, one of Oxford’s most beautiful colleges. In 2017, he returned to Korea to join KAIST as a full professor, where he worked until joining KIAS in 2026.
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, September 1996 - October 2001
- B.S. in Computer Science with Minor in Mathematics, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, March 1992 - February 1996
- Professor, School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS), Korea, March 2026 - Present
- Full Professor, School of Computing, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, July 2017 - February 2026
- Full Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, UK, July 2014 - July 2017
- Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, UK, May 2011 - July 2014
- Tutorial Fellow, Worcester College, University of Oxford, UK, October 2011 - July 2017
- Senior Research Fellow, Worcester College, University of Oxford, UK, May 2011 - September 2011
- Lecturer (corresponding to Assistant Professor in the US), School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, UK, October 2006 - April 2011
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Seoul National University, Korea, December 2003 - February 2006
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, July 2001 - November 2003
- Most Influential Paper Award in POPL 2023. Received for the 2013 POPL paper ``Views: Compositional Reasoning for Concurrent Programs'' by Thomas Dinsdale-Young, Lars Birkedal, Philippa Gardner, Matthew Parkinson, and Hongseok Yang.
- Test of Time Award in ESEC/FSE 2022. Received for the 2012 FSE paper ``Automated Concolic Testing of Smartphone Apps'' by Saswat Anand, Mayur Naik, Mary Jean Harrold, and Hongseok Yang.
- ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award in ICSE 2019.
- Most Influential Paper Award in POPL 2019. Received for the 2009 POPL paper ``Compositional Shape Analysis by means of Bi-abduction'' by Cristiano Calcagno, Dino Distefano, Peter W. O'Hearn, and Hongseok Yang.
- 2016 CAV Award. Received with Josh Berdine, Cristiano Calcagno, Dino Distefano, Samin Ishtiaq, Peter W. O'Hearn, and John Reynolds for our contributions on the development and automation of separation logic.
- Distinguished Paper Award in PLDI 2014.
- Best Paper Award in CONCUR 2012.
- Finalist for Times Higher Education Award 2008 for Research Project of the Year.
- EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship, October 2007 - September 2012.
- Office: 7305 / TEL) 82-2-958-3525 /
- School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
- 85 Hoegiro Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea.
