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------------------------------------------------------------------------ *PhD Student Positions in Programming Language-based Security* Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden Application deadline: April 30, 2008 Full version of this announcement: http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/news/vacancies/positions/phd-student-positions-in6722 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *The Department* The department provides a strong, international, and dynamic research environment with about 75 faculty and 75 PhD students. For more information, see http://www.chalmers.se/cse/EN/. Knowledge of Swedish is not a prerequisite for application. English is our working language for research. Both Swedish and English are used in undergraduate courses. Half of our researchers and PhD students are native Swedes; the rest come from more than 30 different countries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *PhD Project* The PhD students will join a world-leading team of researchers on *programming language-based security*. Language-based security facilitates specifying and enforcing security policies at the level of programming languages early in the software design and construction phase. The focus of the advertised positions is on *language-based information-flow security*. Given a program that manipulates sensitive data, the aim is to make sure there is no information flow (caused by the execution of the program) that may compromise the sensitive data. Drawing on the recent progress in this area, the goal of the positions is to pursue the following directions of work: * To design *rich security policies* for confidentiality and integrity, as demanded by practical applications (such as web applications). These security policies should be formal: they should operate at the level of programming-language semantics. * To develop *practical enforcement mechanisms* for these policies in expressive programming languages (such as web languages). These enforcement mechanisms may combine static (for example, type system-based) and dynamic (for example, execution monitoring-based) techniques. * To support the above with case studies in web-application security. In pursuing these goals, there are possibilities for collaboration with our high-profile academic and industrial partners. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Details about Employment* PhD student positions are limited to five years and will then normally include 20% departmental work, mostly teaching duties. Salary for the position is as specified in Chalmers' general agreement for PhD student positions. The positions are intended to start on September 1, 2008. In exceptional cases, we can imagine moving the starting date. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Suitable Background* Applicants must have a very good degree in Computing Science or in a related subject with a strong Computing Science component. They must also have a strong, documented interest in doing research. The ideal student for the project will have strong background in both programming languages and security. You may even apply if you have not yet completed your degree, but expect to do so before the position starts. In order to improve gender balance, Chalmers welcomes in particular applications from female candidates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *How to Apply* The full application should contain 1. A letter of application, listing specific research interests 2. Copies of degrees and other certificates 3. A curriculum vitae 4. Letters of recommendation from your teachers or employers 5. Copies of relevant work, for example dissertations, theses, or articles, that you have authored or co-authored You MUST include letters of recommendation: we typically get over 100 applications, and it is simply not feasible for us to request individual letters! Your application needs to include the job reference number 2008/60. The last date for your full application to arrive is April 30, 2008. The application can be submitted electronically, or on paper, following the guidelines on this web page: http://www.chalmers.se/en/sections/news/vacancies/positions/phd-student-positions-in6722