Prof. Lionel Briand Wins ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award

Luxembourg, Luxembourg – (SnT – 16 March 2022) – Congratulations to Prof. Lionel Briand, head of the Software Verification and Validation research group at the University of Luxembourg's Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), who has been awarded the ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the most prominent and largest scientific and professional society in computer science. This prestigious award is presented annually to individuals who have demonstrated significant and lasting contributions in the field of software engineering. He is honoured more specifically for his high-impact research on software testing and quality assurance, including security and artificial intelligence aspects, through his many years of research collaborations with industry.

As part of this award, Prof. Briand has been invited as the Outstanding Research awardee to give a keynote speech at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), which will be held in Pittsburgh, USA, and will receive his award from the ACM SIGSOFT chair. ICSE is the flagship conference in software engineering, where researchers and experts will gather to discuss trends, innovations and challenges in the sector.

Speaking of the achievement, Prof Briand shared, “I feel both honoured and humbled by this award. Past recipients include pioneers and founders of my research field, software engineering, researchers who have had a huge impact on both science and the software industry. As the saying goes, as scientists, we ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ and in my field, many of them have received this award. Furthermore, I am very grateful to the many students and collaborators I have had the chance to work with over the years. In research, teamwork is essential.”

As a renowned figure in the field of software engineering, Prof. Briand has received many prestigious accolades for his significant contributions to the field. He was previously granted the ACM Most Influential Paper Award in both 2015 and 2021, and is one of just two researchers in the world to have received this award more than once in the history of the field. He was also distinguished with the IEEE TCSE Harlan Mills award in 2012 and was elevated to the rank of Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 2020, as well as Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2010.

Prof. Briand has been a faculty member of SnT since 2012, with his main areas of research focusing on software verification and validation, including AI-enabled systems and cybersecurity aspects. He also has a faculty position at the University of Ottawa, Canada, where he holds a Canada research chair in intelligent software dependability and compliance.

See the original media release on the SnT website.