Marta Kwiatkowska named as BCS Lovelace Medal Winner 2019

Marta Kwiatkowska, Department of Computer Science, Trinity College, Oxford has been named as the recipient of the 2019 BCS Lovelace Medal, the top award in computing in the UK, awarded by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT.

The award is presented annually to individuals who, in the opinion of BCS Academy Awards Committee, have made a significant contribution to the advancement of Information Systems.

Professor Kwiatkowska has been recognised for her major contributions to probabilistic and quantitative verification. She has made significant contributions across the breadth of theory, applications and software tools. Her research and her software system PRISM has made a huge impact on computer science in the UK and worldwide. Since 2001 she has led the development of the highly influential probabilistic model checker PRISM .

Professor Kwiatkowska explains: 'Computing infrastructure has become indispensable in our society, with examples ranging from online banking, to intelligent vehicles and electronic medical equipment. Software faults in such systems can have disastrous consequences.

My research is concerned with developing modelling and automated verification techniques that can guarantee the stable, safe, secure, timely, reliable and resource-efficient operation of computing systems.'

PRISM is widely used for research and teaching across the globe; it is highly cited, has been downloaded over 70,000 times and used in over 500 publications to date. It has been shown to be effective for modelling a wide range of applications including communications protocols, molecular and cell biology, and more recently, adaptive and artificial intelligence systems. It has proved its usefulness in many distinct fields, including distributed and cloud computing, wireless networks, security, robotics, quantum computing, game theory, biology and nanotechnology.

The award will be presented to Professor Kwiatkowska at a ceremony at the Royal Society in London next spring.

Steve Furber, Chair of BCS Academy Awards Committee says: 'Professor Kwiatkowska has made an outstanding contribution to the understanding and advancement of computing and I am delighted that we are awarding her the Lovelace Medal in recognition of her wide range of achievements. The impact she has made to computer science, and her contribution to academic research, makes her a richly deserving recipient of this prestigious award.'

Professor Kwiatkowska says of being presented with the award: 'I'm incredibly honoured to be receiving the 2019 Lovelace Medal. It's really exciting to have my work recognised via the award and emphasises the importance and potential of research in probabilistic and quantitative verification.  Over the years, I have worked in conjunction with many collaborators and am grateful for their contributions, none more so than Dr Gethin Norman and Professor David Parker, who worked on the first implementation of PRISM and have provided great support ever since.'

Nominations for the 2019 award open on Monday 21 October 2019 and close on Friday 24 January 2020. More information can be found at www.bcs.org.uk