Dr Martin Lester

Background

After completing his undergraduate degree in 2006 at the University of Cambridge, Dr Martin Lester worked for a year as a software developer at Autonomy Systems in Cambridge.

In 2008, he went to study for his master's degree and doctorate at the University of Oxford. His master's dissertation was on Higher Order Recursion Schemes; this led to being part of the team that developed THORS, the first model-checker for computational tree logic (CTL) properties of infinite-state systems. His doctoral thesis was on a static information flow security analysis for a JavaScript-like language, with a particular focus on the eval construct, a form of metaprogramming that allows a string to be executed as program code.

From 2013 to 2017, Dr Lester held various teaching positions in Oxford, including as a Senior Teaching Assistant at the Department of Computer Science and as a College Lecturer at Balliol College and Worcester College. Next, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher under Bill Roscoe and Philippa Hopcroft, developing tools for the Coco language for verification of software models.

Dr Lester became a Lecturer at the University of Reading in 2018, and is currently the undergraduate Admissions Tutor, as well as being responsible for organising open and visit days. Lately, his research has focused primarily on the interaction between metaprogramming, program transformation and program analysis.