Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
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Clarkson, Schneider win Test of Time Award for 2008 paper

July 18, 2023

Two faculty members from the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science have received the Computer Security Foundation (CSF) Symposium’s inaugural Test of Time Award for their 2008 paper introducing hyperproperties as a mathematical foundation for computer security policies. The approach has since been used much more broadly for reasoning about program behavior.

Authored by Michael Clarkson Ph.D. ‘10, senior lecturer in computer science and a Steven H. Weiss Provost’s Teaching Fellow, and Fred Schneider, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Computer Science, “Hyperproperties” was cited by the awarding committee for its long-term significance and technical impact on not only the security foundations community but also in programming languages and verification.  The committee also commended the paper for its exemplary style of exposition.

One of three works that received CSF’s inaugural Test of Time awards, the duo’s paper was chosen among all research published in CSF over a 26-year period.

Clarkson co-authored “Hyperproperties” as a Cornell doctoral student in the field of computer science, studying under Schneider and Andrew Myers, professor of computer science. He returned to Cornell as a faculty member in 2014.

The award was announced at this month’s Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Security Foundations Symposium, a conference for researchers in computer security and privacy, now in its 36th year.