Biography:Martin Vechev

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Martin Vechev
Мартин Вечев
Professor Martin Vechev
Born (1977-07-24) 24 July 1977 (age 48)
Sofia, Bulgaria
NationalityBulgarian
Alma mater
Known forMachine learning for code (BigCode), Robust and Trustworthy AI, Quantum Programming, Silq Programming Language
Awards
  • ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award 2019
  • John Atanasoff Award
  • ERC Consolidator Grant
  • ERC Starting Grant
  • IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award
Scientific career
FieldsProgramming Languages, Machine Learning, Security
Institutions
Doctoral advisorMartin Richards (computer scientist)
Websitehttps://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch/people/martin
https://insait.ai/prof-martin-vechev/

Martin Vechev (born 24 July 1977) is a full professor at the department of computer science at ETH Zurich, working in the fields of programming languages, machine learning and computer security. He leads the Secure, Reliable, and Intelligent Systems Lab (SRI),[1] part of the Department of Computer Science.

Vechev is the founder, architect and Scientific Director of INSAIT - Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology, a research center in computer science and artificial intelligence in Eastern Europe, created in partnership with ETH Zurich and EPFL.

He is known for his works in machine learning for code (BigCode), where he introduced statistical programming engines trained on large codebases,[2] reliable and trustworthy artificial intelligence,[1] where he introduced abstract interpretation methods for reasoning about deep neural networks to enable the verification of large machine learning models, and quantum programming, introducing the first high-level programming language and system Silq.[3]

Vechev has received the ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award in 2019,[4][5][6] an ERC Consolidator Grant[7][8] in 2021, a mid-career award given to outstanding researchers with highly promising scientific track records focusing on safe and trustworthy AI, and a highly-visible ERC Starting Grant,[9][10][11][12] which helped shape the area of AI for code. Vechev has also co-authored over 170 research publications,[13] some of which have been recognized with best paper awards, distinguished paper awards, as well as spotlight and oral selections.[14]

Prior to starting at ETH Zurich in 2012, Vechev was a Research Staff Member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in New York, US from 2007 to 2011.

Advised doctoral students

Vechev has supervised and graduated 20 doctoral students at ETH Zurich.[15] Several of his Ph.D. students received major recognitions for their dissertations. Veselin Raychev received an Honorable Mention for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award[16] and the ETH medal. Gagandeep Singh received the ACM SIGPLAN Doctoral Dissertation Award.[17][18] Samuel Steffen was awarded the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award Runner-Up.[19] Benjamin Bichsel received both the ACM SIGPLAN John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award[20][21] and the ETH medal[22] on the topic of 'High-Level Quantum Programming'. Timon Gehr received the ETH medal.[23] Rüdiger Birkner was awarded the 2022 EuroSys Roger Needham Ph.D. Award.[24] Dimitar K. Dimitrov received the ETH medal.[25]

Early life and education

Martin Vechev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he attended the Sofia High School of Mathematics (SMG) from 1991 to 1994. He received a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge in 2008.

Serial entrepreneurship

Vechev has also co-founded 6 deep tech start-ups:

  • LatticeFlow, building a platform for delivering robust and trustworthy AI systems[26][27][28]
  • DeepCode, an AI-based code review system, acquired by the security unicorn Snyk in 2020[29][30][31]
  • ChainSecurity, smart contract security audits based on formal mathematical guarantees, acquired by PwC Switzerland in 2020[32]
  • NetFabric, focused on AI-based network monitoring[33][34][35]
  • Invariant Labs, dedicated to developing advanced security solutions for autonomous AI agents, acquired by Snyk in 2025[36][37][38]
  • and LogicStar, a company developing AI agents that autonomously resolve bugs[39]

Awards

Vechev's work has been recognized by many international awards, including:

  • ACM SIGPLAN Robin Milner Young Researcher Award[4][5][6] in 2019 for major contributions to the area of programming languages
  • ACM SIGPLAN Research Highlight[40]
  • CACM Research Highlight 2016[41][42][43]
  • ERC Consolidator Grant 2021[7][8] for the project SafeAI: Certified Safe, Fair and Robust Artificial Intelligence
  • ERC Starting Grant[9][10][11][12] for the project BIGCODE, the first to combine advanced programming languages and machine learning techniques, which developed new AI-based methods for creating and debugging software
  • John Atanasoff Award 2009, awarded by the President of Bulgaria[44][45][46]
  • Google and Facebook Faculty Research Awards
  • IBM Research Division Award
  • IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award (awarded by John Kelly, IBM Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research)
  • IBM Research Outstanding Project Award
  • IBM Invention and Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "SafeAI: Safe Artificial Intelligence". https://safeai.ethz.ch/. 
  2. ↑ "Building the next generation AI systems". April 29, 2024. https://erc.europa.eu/projects-statistics/science-stories/building-next-generation-ai-systems. 
  3. ↑ "Silq is a new high-level programming language for quantum computers" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/15/silq-is-a-new-high-level-programming-language-for-quantum-computers/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "ACM Young Researcher Award for Prof. Martin Vechev". ETH Zurich. 2019. https://ethz.ch/en/the-eth-zurich/portrait/latest-honours-and-prizes/2019/07/acm-young-researcher-award-for-prof-martin-vechev.html. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Robin Milner Young Researcher Award". https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Milner/. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Prof. Martin Vechev honoured with ACM Young Researcher Award" (in en). https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2019/06/Vechev-ACM-SIGPLAN-award.html. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "313 new ERC Consolidator Grants to tackle big scientific questions" (in en). 2024-09-05. https://erc.europa.eu/news/erc-2021-consolidator-grants-results. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "ERC Consolidator Grants for Otmar Hilliges and Martin Vechev" (in en). 2022-03-17. https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2022/03/erc-grant-otmar-hilliges-martin-vechev.html. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Building the next generation AI systems". 2015. https://erc.europa.eu/projects-figures/stories/building-next-generation-ai-systems. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 (in en) Interview at the European Parliament on ERC grants by Martin Vechev (ERC starting grant holder)., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlgS1kfRko8, retrieved 2021-12-16 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "CHF 10 million for young talents" (in en). December 14, 2015. https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2015/12/chf-ten-million-for-young-talent.html. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Vesper, Inga (2018-06-04). "Europe's top science funder shows high-risk research pays off" (in en). Nature 558 (7708): 16–17. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05325-4. PMID 29872198. Bibcode: 2018Natur.558...16V. 
  13. ↑ "dblp: Martin T. Vechev" (in en). https://dblp.org/pid/93/2189.html. 
  14. ↑ "Publications" (in en). https://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch/publications/. 
  15. ↑ https://www.sri.inf.ethz.ch/people/
  16. ↑ "Veselin Raychev" (in en). https://awards.acm.org/award_winners/raychev_2031789. 
  17. ↑ "2021 ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for Gagandeep Singh" (in en). September 14, 2021. https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2021/09/acm-sigplan-dissertation-award-2021-singh.html. 
  18. ↑ "John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award". https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Dissertation/. 
  19. ↑ "ACM SIGSAC Dissertation Awards". https://www.sigsac.org/award/diss-awards.html. 
  20. ↑ "John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award". https://www.sigplan.org/Awards/Dissertation/. 
  21. ↑ "ACM SIGPLAN Dissertation Award for Benjamin Bichsel" (in en). 2024-07-02. https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2024/07/sigplan-dissertation-award-for-benjamin-bichsel.html. 
  22. ↑ "Five doctoral graduates receive ETH Medals" (in en). 2023-11-15. https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2023/11/five-doctoral-graduates-receive-eth-medals.html. 
  23. ↑ "Four doctoral graduates receive ETH Medals" (in en). 2022-11-08. https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2022/11/eth-medals-doctorate.html. 
  24. ↑ "European Chapter of ACM SIGOPS - Roger Needham PhD Award" (in en-US). https://www.eurosys.org/awards/roger-needham-phd-award. 
  25. ↑ "ETH Medal for doctoral theses" (in en). https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2020/11/eth-medal-doctoral-thesis.html. 
  26. ↑ "ETH spin-off LatticeFlow raises $2.8M to help build trustworthy AI systems" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/19/eth-spin-off-latticeflow-raises-2-8m-to-help-build-trustworthy-ai-systems/. 
  27. ↑ "Joint services announce winners of global AI competition" (in en). https://www.army.mil/article/250419/joint_services_announce_winners_of_global_ai_competition. 
  28. ↑ Yovchev, Etien (2021-12-03). "Seeing strong product adoption LatticeFlow expands to Sofia to accelerate the development of its platform for robust AI models" (in en-GB). https://therecursive.com/seeing-strong-product-adoption-latticeflow-expands-to-sofia-to-accelerate-the-development-of-its-platform-for-robust-ai-models/. 
  29. ↑ "Snyk acquires DeepCode to boost its code review smarts" (in en-US). https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/24/snyk-acquires-deepcode-to-boost-its-code-review-smarts/. 
  30. ↑ "ETH AI spin-off DeepCode acquired by a unicorn in cybersecurity" (in en). September 23, 2020. https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2020/09/deepcode.html. 
  31. ↑ "AI Code Analysis Startup Founded by a Bulgarian Team Gets Acquired by a Cybersecurity Unicorn" (in en-US). 2020-09-23. https://www.trendingtopics.eu/deepcode-founded-by-a-bulgarian-team-gets-acquired/. 
  32. ↑ "ETH spin-off ChainSecurity is taken over by PwC Switzerland" (in en). https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/2020/01/chainsecurity-pwc-switzerland.html. 
  33. ↑ "Why Playfair Capital invested in NetFabric.ai". https://www.tribume.com/posts/why-playfair-capital-invested-in-netfabric-ai. 
  34. ↑ България, Forbes (2024-07-12). "Стартъпът с българско участие NetFabric поглежда към 1.6-милиардния пазар на мониторинг на мрежи" (in bg-BG). https://forbesbulgaria.com/2024/07/12/startapat-s-balgarsko-uchastie-netfabric-poglezhda-kam-1-6-miliardniya-pazar-na-monitoring-na-mrezhi/. 
  35. ↑ Laoun, Joy. "Zurich-based startup NetFabric.ai secures $2.2M to transform network monitoring" (in en). https://www.vestbee.com/blog/articles/net-fabric-ai-secures-2-2-m. 
  36. ↑ "Invariant Labs" (in en). https://invariantlabs.ai/. 
  37. ↑ https://inf.ethz.ch/news-and-events/spotlights/infk-news-channel/2025/06/eth-spin-off-aquired-by-snyk.html
  38. ↑ https://snyk.io/news/snyk-acquires-invariant-labs-to-accelerate-agentic-ai-security-innovation/
  39. ↑ "LogicStar AI" (in en). https://logicstar.ai/. 
  40. ↑ "SIGPLAN Research Highlights Papers" (in en). https://www.sigplan.org/Highlights/Papers/. 
  41. ↑ Raychev, Veselin; Vechev, Martin; Krause, Andreas (2015-01-14). "Predicting Program Properties from "Big Code"". Proceedings of the 42nd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. POPL '15. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 111–124. doi:10.1145/2676726.2677009. ISBN 978-1-4503-3300-9. https://doi.org/10.1145/2676726.2677009. 
  42. ↑ Krause, Veselin Raychev, Martin Vechev, Andreas. "Predicting Program Properties from 'Big Code'" (in en). https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/3/234932-predicting-program-properties-from-big-code/fulltext. 
  43. ↑ Rinard, Martin C.. "Technical Perspective: Borrowing Big Code to Automate Programming Activities" (in en). https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/3/234924-technical-perspective-borrowing-big-code-to-automate-programming-activities/fulltext. 
  44. ↑ "John Atanassov Awards". https://m.president.bg/en/cat37/About-award-John-Atanasov. 
  45. ↑ (in en) John Atanasoff Award 2009 - Vechev, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp7RZPPYXZ4, retrieved 2021-12-13 
  46. ↑ "Мартин Вечев е носителят на тазгодишния приз" (in bg). https://econ.bg/Новини/Мартин-Вечев-е-носителят-на-тазгодишния-приз-Джон-Атанасов-_l.a_i.170782_at.1.html. 



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