Michael Clarkson

Biography

Michael Clarkson is a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Previously he was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University. He received a PhD in computer science from Cornell University in 2010, a MS in computer science from Cornell in 2004, a BS in systems analysis from Miami University in 1999, and a BM in music performance from Miami in 1999.

Clarkson's research interests include computer security and programming languages. His work focuses on using principled techniques to define security and to construct secure systems. He is the recipient of an Air Force Young Investigators Award (YIP).

Clarkson is the lead creator of the Civitas voting system. He served as a member of a security review team commissioned by the Florida Division of Elections for an Internet voting pilot project.

Research Interests

The goal of my research is to make it possible to reason about the security of systems. I seek to identify principles and methods for defining security and for building systems that offer security assurance. I employ mathematical models, programming language theory, and logics. I build real systems and analyze their security. I'm specifically interested in the following areas:

• Security: Electronic voting, security policies, information flow, and cryptography.
• Programming languages: Semantics, logics, and language-based security; specification and verification of programs.