| Helmut Veith | |
| Birth Date: | 5 February 1971 |
| Birth Place: | Vienna, Austria |
| Death Place: | Vienna, Austria |
| Citizenship: | Austria |
| Alma Mater: | TU Wien |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Georg Gottlob |
Helmut Veith (5 February 1971 – 12 March 2016) was an Austriancomputer scientist who worked on the areas of computer-aidedverification, software engineering, computer security, and logic in computer science. He was a Professor of Informaticsat the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), Austria.[1] [2] [3]
Veith received his Diplom-Ingenieur in computational logic at TU Wienin 1994. He received his doctorate in computer science in 1998 underthe supervision of Professor Georg Gottlob on the topic of computationalcomplexity of logics and database query languages.
Veith was a professor at the Faculty of Informatics of TU Wien, and an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.Previously he was a professor at the Department of Computer Science of TU Darmstadt (2008–2009) and TU Munich (2003–2008), and an associate professor at TU Wien (2001–2003).He received his habilitation at TU Wien in 2001.
Veith published more than 120 refereed publications [4] in the areas ofcomputer-aided verification and program analysis, logic in computerscience, software engineering,computer security, and theoretical computer science. He was a co-editor of the Handbook of Model Checking.[5] In 2014, he was co-chair of the Vienna Summer of Logic 2014, the largest conference on logic and computer science in history.
Veith is best known for his role in the development ofCounterexample-guided Abstraction Refinement (CEGAR), which is a keyingredient in modern model checkers for software and hardware. Hisresearch applies formal and logical methods to problems in softwaretechnology and engineering, focusing on model checking, softwareverification and testing, embedded software and computer security.
Veith was a co-founder of the Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms (together with Stefan Szeider).[6] Veith was member of the organizational board of the largest logic conference in the history – the Vienna Summer of Logic 2014, which consisted of twelve large conferences and numerous workshops, attracting over 2000 researchers from all over the world to Vienna. Veith served as the speaker of the FWF-funded Doctoral College on Logical Methods in Computer Science and as the deputy coordinator of the National Research Network Rigorous Systems Engineering (RiSE).[7]
Veith was awarded his doctorate with highest distinction "sub auspiciispraesidentis" in a ceremony presided over by the president of Austria. Withhis co-authors, he received the CAV Award 2015 [8] honouring contributionsof fundamental importance to the field of computer-aided verificationfor his contribution to the development of CEGAR. His work on thesoftware model checker MAGIC received the ACM Distinguished PaperAward for contribution to the study of verification of modularsoftware.[9] [10] In 2016, Veith was posthumously awarded an ERC Advanced Grant on the topic Harnessing Model Checking Technology for Distributed Algorithms.