Michael Franz

Professor Michael Franz was an early pioneer in the areas of mobile code and dynamic compilation. He created an early just-in-time compilation system, contributed to the theory and practice of continuous compilation and optimization, and co-invented the trace compilation technology that eventually became the JavaScript engine in Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

His current research emphasis lies in the area of Software Systems, particularly focusing on compiler, virtual machine, and related system-level techniques for making software either safer, or faster, or both. Some of this research also falls under the labels Computer Security, Trustworthy Computing, and Software Engineering.

Dr. Franz has graduated 35 Ph.D. students as their primary advisor and has published more than 140 peer-reviewed research papers. He is the Principal Investigator on many competitive grants from the federal government, totaling over $24 million (of which more than $15 million as sole PI), and has received more than a million dollars in unrestricted gifts from industry in appreciation of the research innovations he has contributed.

Franz received a Doctor of Technical Sciences degree in Computer Science (advisor: Niklaus Wirth) and a Dipl. Informatik-Ingenieur ETH degree, both from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Distinguished Scientist and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a Fellow of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and an Inaugural Fellow of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).