Björn Victor

Short presentation

I teach cyber security and technical writing/presentation, and do research in theory of distributed and parallel computing, in particular using process calculi. In 2018-2023 I also worked with educational development in TUR, the Council for Educational Development at the faculty of Science and Technology.

Keywords

• process calculi
• cyber security
• pedagogical development
• semantics of computer programs

Biography

Born 1963, Swedish citizen, one child.

Academic degrees

Distinguished University Teacher, Uppsala University 2017. Docent in Computer Science, Uppsala University 2007. Ph.D in Computer Systems, Uppsala University 1998. Licentiate (Fil.lic) in Computer Systems, Uppsala University 1994. B.Sc., Uppsala University 1990.

Trust and leadership

I was a member of the steering group for the Language Workshop (Språkverkstaden) of the university 2019-2023. Previously, I was the Subject Coordinator (ämneskoordinator) for Computer Science, and member of the board of education of the faculty of Science and Technology, 2019 - May 2020. I was Dean of Engineering Education, and member of the faculty board of the faculty of Science and Technology, Sep 2011-June 2017 (re-elected 2014). Acting Dean of Education of the faculty, Dec 2011-Feb 2012. Programme director for the Computer and Information Engineering programme 2007-2011. Member of the department board 2000-2012. Member of the university Quality Committee 2011-2013. Member of the steering group for the Student Portal 2009-2016, representing the university teachers. Member of the university IT council 2008-2011. Editor of the IT department technical report series and licentiate theses series 1999-2024. Web technology development for the IT department 2000-2024. Member and chairman of the department gender equality group 2004-2009.

Inspektor at Uplands Nation 2019-2024.

Positions

Professor in Computing Science since May 2015. Senior lecturer/associate professor at the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University 1998-2015. Research assistant at the Department of Information Technology 2002-2005. Graduate student November 1990 - June 1998. Researcher (part-time) at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), 1992-1995. Visiting researcher at Edinburgh University (LFCS) July-August 1993, at Universität des Saarlandes (DFKI) November 1996, at Universidade de Lisboa (DI-FCUL) March 1999, at Aalborg University (BRICS) November 1999, at Università di Pisa (Dipartimento di Informatica) December 1999, at ITU (Department of Theoretical Computer Science), November 2004, and at École Polytechnique LIX, May 2005 and June 2006, and at TU Berlin (MTV group), February 2017.

Member of TUR, the Council for Educational Development at the Faculty of Science and Technology, 2018-2023.

Projects

Member of the steering groups of the ProFun project funded by the Swedish Research Council 2009-2015 and the UPMARC project also funded by the Swedish Research Council 2008-2017; member of the Management Committee of BETTY (Behavioural Types for Reliable Large-Scale Software Systems), a COST Action funded by EU 2012-2016; project leader of Constraint-Based Verification of Typed Mobile Processes, funded by the Swedish Research Council 2007-2009; site leader for the PROFUNDIS FET-GC project 2002-2005; project leader for the SAAPP project (Simulator-Aided Analysis of Parallel Processes) 2002-2005, funded by ASTEC, and the project Analysis of security properties 2002-2005, funded by the Swedish Research Council. Coordinator of the Specification and Modelling area of the TFR ram-project Methods and Tools for Design of Distributed and Real-Time Systems (dnr 221-95-796) 1995-2001. Participated in the ESPRIT Working Group no. 21836, CONFER-2 1996-2000, the ESPRIT basic research project no. 6454, CONFER (CONcurrency and Functions: Evaluation and Reduction) 1992-1995, and no. 8130, LOMAPS (Logical and Operational Methods in the Analysis of Programs and Systems) 1995-1996.

Research activities

Semantics, specification, verification and analysis techniques for concurrent systems and programming languages, in particular using calculi for mobile processes, e.g., pi-calculus, fusion calculus and psi-calculi; wireless sensor networks; expressiveness in process calculi; security analysis; tools for analyzing and manipulating mobile concurrent systems. The principal author of the Mobility Workbench, the first automated tool for the pi-calculus and later extended for the fusion calculus. Previously maintainer of the Bibliography on Calculi for Mobile Processes with Uwe Nestmann.

PhD advisor of Magnus Johansson (graduated May 2010) and Kidane Yemane (graduated January 2006). Co-advisor of Jesper Bengtsson (graduated June 2010), Palle Raabjerg (licentiate 2012), Johannes Åman Pohjola (graduated Sep 2016), Ramunas Gutkovas (graduated Sep 2016), Volkan Cambazoglu (licentiate 2016), and Kiko Fernandez (graduated January 2021).

PC member of FORTE 2021 (not in Valetta, Malta, June 2021), TACAS 2021 (not in Luxembourg, March-April 2021), ICTAC 2015 (Cali, October 2015), CONCUR 2014 (Rome, September 2014), and TGC 2014 (Rome, September 2014); member of the conference committee for ITiCSE 2014 (Uppsala, June 2014) and ETAPS 2017 (Uppsala, April 2017); PC member of BEAT 2 (Madrid, September 23-24, 2013), the second international workshop on behavioural types; NordSec 2012, the 17th Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems; CONCUR 2012, the 23rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory, held in Newcastle upon Tyne, September 3-8, 2012; PC member of ICALP 2012 (track B), the 39th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming, held 9-13 July 2012 at the University of Warwick, UK. PC member of CONCUR 11, the 22nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory, held in Aachen, September 6-9, 2011; EXPRESS'10, the 17th International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency, held in Paris, August 30th, 2010; COLOPS, a sattellite workshop of ICLP'03, held in Mumbai, India, December 13 2003; ICALP 2003 (track B), held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, June 30-July 4, 2003; CONCUR'01, the 12th international conference on concurrency theory, held at BRICS, Aalborg, August 21-24 2001; IWFM'03, the sixth International Workshop in Formal Methods, held at Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, July 11, 2003; and of ConCoord (International Workshop on Concurrency and Coordination) held in Lipari, Italy, 6-8 July 2001. Program co-chair of EXPRESS'00, the 7th international workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency, held on August 21, 2000, in conjunction with the CONCUR 2000 international conference on concurrency theory at Pennsylvania State University, USA. Responsible for the scientific programme at the CONFER-2 spring meeting in Stockholm, June 2000. Program co-chair of EXPRESS'99, held on August 23, 1999, in conjunction with CONCUR'99 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. On the organizing committee of NWPT'99, the 11th Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory, held in Uppsala on October 6-8, 1999.

Member of the program committee and organizational committee for the 5th National Development Conference for Engineering Education, Uppsala, November 18-19, 2015.

Invited speaker at EXPRESS 2011, Aachen, Germany, September 5 2011 (in conjunction with CONCUR 2011), and the PFM 2001 (Proofs for Mobility) workshop, Genova, Italy, April 7 2001 (in conjuction with ETAPS 2001). Guest co-editor of a special issue of MSCS (Mathematical Structures in Computer Science) volume 13, issues 4-5, on "the Difference between Concurrent and Sequential Computation", and of a special issue of JLAP (Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming) volume 63, issue 1, on the pi-calculus.

Teaching

Cybersecurity in a Societal Perspective 2021-2022; Independent project in IT 2010-2022; Secure computer systems I (advanced level) 2011-2013, 2014 (twice), 2015-2021; Secure computer systems II (advanced level) 2011-2012; Secure computer systems (C level) 2004-2007, 2009-2010; Cryptography (C level) 2007-2010; Operating systems (C level) 1994-1996, 1998, 2020 (twice), 2001, 2006; Advanced computer networks 2008, Computer networks (C level) 2001-2003; Data Security (C level) 1999-2001; Computer Programming 1 (A level) 1998. Mobile Processes (graduate level, co-teaching) 1995 and 2002. Lab assistant on operating systems, data security, computer aided design, and formal methods courses 1990-1993. Advisor and examiner of many M.Sc. and B.Sc. theses.

Basic pedagogic education 1992, course on advising undergraduate theses 1999, course on advising PhD students 2001. Course on gender-aware pedagogics 2007. Didactic education 2008, engineering didactics 2014, ethics in technology and science education 2015.

Evaluation

Responsible for the preparation, implementation and follow-up of the national evaluation of the educational programmes of the faculty, 2011-2012. Member of working group which developed the framework for education evaluation and development at UU 2015-2017. Expert evaluator for engineering programmes at BTH 2015-2016. Expert evaluator for applications for development funds for new/renewed education at advanced level in the Avans programme at the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) 2013-2022. Evaluator of pedagogical expertise for hiring and promotion at other universities in Sweden since 2020. Expert evaluator for UKÄ (the Swedish Higher Education Authority) for awarding powers of engineering degrees at SLU, 2021.

Awards

Uppsala University Distinguished Teaching Award winner (Pedagogiska priset) 2018.

The medal of merit from UTN (Uppsala Union of Science and Engineering Students) 2011.

Popular science

Participated in the Artemis project (Art and Science in a creative meeting), involving Uppsala Artist Club, Bror Hjort's House, Museum Gustavianum, and Uppsala University. The exhibition Abstraktioner och Taktiliteter, with Katarina Sundkvist Zohari, took place between August 4 and October 15, 2000, at Museum Gustavianum.