Faculty

Michael D. Ernst is a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.

Ernst’s research aims to make software more reliable, more secure, and easier (and more fun!) to produce. His primary technical interests are in software engineering, programming languages, type theory, security, program analysis, bug prediction, testing, and verification. Ernst’s research combines strong theoretical foundations with realistic experimentation, with an eye to changing the way that software developers work.

Ernst is an ACM Fellow (2014) and IEEE Fellow (2021) and received the CRA-E Undergraduate Mentoring Award (2018), the inaugural John Backus Award (2009), and the NSF CAREER Award (2002). His research has received an ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award (2013), three ISSTA Impact Award Awards (2018, 2019, 2024), an ICSE Most Influential Paper Award (2017), a FSE Most Influential Paper Award (2024), 9 ACM Distinguished Paper Awards (ICSE 2018, FSE 2014, ISSTA 2014, ESEC/FSE 2011, ISSTA 2009, ESEC/FSE 2007, ICSE 2007, ICSE 2004, ESEC/FSE 2003), an ECOOP 2011 Best Paper Award, honorable mention in the 2000 ACM doctoral dissertation competition, and other honors. In 2013, Microsoft Academic Search ranked Ernst #2 in the world, in software engineering research contributions over the past 10 years. In 2016, AMiner ranked Ernst #3 among all software engineering researchers ever.

Ernst was previously a tenured professor at MIT, and before that a researcher at Microsoft Research.