Frank Pfenning is a German-American professor of computer science, adjunct professor in philosophy, and was head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University from 2013 to 2018.

Education and career

Pfenning grew up in Rüsselsheim in Germany. He studied mathematics and computer science at Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany. He then moved to the US and studied at Carnegie Mellon University, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in the Department of Mathematics in 1987, for his dissertation entitled Proof Transformations in Higher-Order Logic. He was a student of Peter B. Andrews. His research includes work in the area of programming languages, logic and type theory, logical frameworks, automated deduction, and trustworthy computing. He is one of the principal authors of the Twelf system. He also developed Carnegie Mellon's introductory imperative programming course for undergraduates and the C0 programming language used in this course.

Honors and awards

In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery "for contributions to the logical foundations of automatic theorem proving and types for programming languages." In 2016, he received the LICS Test of Time Award for the paper "A Linear Logical Framework", co-authored with Iliano Cervesato.

Personal life

Pfenning is a competitive squash player, ranked in the top five of the university's squash ladder. Pfenning has also appeared in an experimental film alongside Sharon Needles.