Javier Esparza facts for kids

Francisco Javier Esparza Estaun (born April 27, 1964) is a Spanish computer scientist. He was born in Pamplona, Spain. Today, he is a professor at the Technical University of Munich in Germany.

What Did Javier Esparza Study?

Javier Esparza studied a lot to become a computer scientist! He first earned his Master's degree in Theoretical Physics in 1987. He got this degree from the University of Zaragoza in Spain.

After that, he continued his studies at the same university. In 1990, he received his PhD (Doctoral degree) in Computer Science. His PhD research was about something called 'free-choice Petri nets'.

Later, in 1994, he completed another important step in his academic career. This was at the University of Hildesheim. There, he focused on a topic known as 'Petri net unfoldings'.

What Does Javier Esparza Do?

Javier Esparza is a very important person in the world of computer science. He has worked on many interesting topics.

Early Work and Petri Nets

When he first started his career, Javier Esparza focused on concurrency theory. This is about how different parts of a computer program can run at the same time. He also studied Petri nets, which are special diagrams used to model how systems work.

He helped improve the theory of Petri nets. He also worked on something called the 'unfolding approach'. This method helps to understand complex systems better. He even wrote two books about these subjects!

Where Has He Worked?

Javier Esparza has worked at several famous universities. From 1994 to 2001, he was a professor at the Technical University of Munich.

Then, he moved to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He was a professor there from 2001 to 2003. After that, he taught at the Universität Stuttgart in Germany from 2003 to 2007.

Since 2007, he has been back at the Technical University of Munich. He holds a special position there, focusing on how to make software reliable and on theoretical computer science.

His Research and Tools

Javier Esparza has also worked on checking if software programs work correctly. This is called model checking. He also studies program analysis, which means looking closely at computer code.

More recently, his work has been about checking systems that can change a lot or that involve chance. He has written over 250 scientific papers about his research. He also co-authored a book about automata theory.

His team has even created several software tools. These tools help to check and verify computer programs. Some of these tools are called Moped, jMoped, Rabinizer, Strix, and Peregrine.

Awards and Projects

In 2018, Javier Esparza received a special award called an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. This award helps him do more research. He has also led more than 20 research projects. Many of these projects involved working with scientists from different countries.

He is often asked to speak at big computer science conferences. He has also been a leader or a member of many important committees in his field.

What Awards Has He Won?

Javier Esparza has received many awards for his amazing work:

• In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. This is a special award given to people who have done great things.
• Since 2011, he has been a member of Academia Europaea. This is a group of top scientists and scholars in Europe.
• In 2021, he won the CONCUR Test-of Time Award. He won it for a paper he wrote with Ahmed Bouajjani and Oded Maler.
• He has also won several 'best paper' awards at conferences.
• He has received the 'Best Teaching' prize many times at the Technical University of Munich.
• In 1990, he won a 'Dissertation Prize' from the University of Zaragoza for his PhD work.

See also

In Spanish: Javier Esparza Estaun para niños