******************************************************* * PhD positions in Combinatorics, Random Graphs, Logic, Complexity, and Semantics * University of Sheffield, UK * Fully funded for 3.5 years for both UK Home and Overseas students * Possible times to start: ASAP/Spring 2024 * Deadline: 17th September 2023 * Details: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DCG686/fully-funded-phd-positions-in-combinatoric... *******************************************************

Up to four fully funded research positions with the opportunity of undertaking a PhD are available within the Foundation of Computation (FOX) Group, Department of Computer Science, at the University of Sheffield: www.sheffield.ac.uk/dcs/research/groups/foundations-computation.

The FOX research group at Sheffield is growing rapidly. These posts provide excellent opportunities for graduate students (UK and overseas) to obtain a PhD in any active research area of the group (see below the research interests of potential supervisors).

The posts are fully funded for three and half years. Note that exceptionally strong overseas candidates will be considered as well, with full cover of tuition fees.

Dr. Charles Grellois is mainly interested in the verification of functional programs, would they be deterministic or probabilistic. He has worked on higher-order model-checking in the deterministic case, and on higher-order termination analysis in the probabilistic case. These approaches use techniques from linear logic and its models, category theory, (intersection) type theory, tree automata theory, probabilistic semantics, realizability… Several interesting questions are still open so that several different PhD projects could be discussed on these topics; but he is also open to other research topics in this area, to be discussed with the prospective student.

Dr. Maksim Zhukovskii is interested in combinatorics, probability, logic, computational and descriptive complexity. Currently Maksim is working on variety of topics including extremal combinatorics (Turan-type questions, saturation, colourings, etc), random graphs (thresholds, limiting distributions, logical limit laws, almost sure theories), average-case complexity (canonical labelling of random graphs, search problems in random graphs, reconstruction problems), enumerative combinatorics (random regular graphs, degree sequences), algebraic combinatorics (Cayley graphs, isomorphism problem for abelian groups, matroids), random walks, first order logic and expressive power of its fragments, second order logic and modal logic. See scholar.google.com/citations?user=sd_xBDQAAAAJ for the list of publications.

Dr. Jonni Virtema is keen to supervise students in any area of his current research, which relate to the interplay of logic and complexity theory. Current topics include logics and complexity theory related to numerical data, and temporal logics designed to express so-called hyperproperties, which are important in information flow and security. A further emerging topic is to study foundations of neural networks using the machinery of logics and complexity theory related to numerical data. See www.virtema.fi for further details.

Dr. Harsh Beohar is broadly interested in comparative concurrency semantics and in the interplay of category theory, logic, and semantics. Current topics include expressive modal logics, behavioural equivalence games, synthesising distinguishing/characteristic formulae all at the level of coalgebras. See dblp.org/pid/13/7482.html for an uptodate list of publications.