- Summary
- Research
- Education
- Leadership
- Expertise
- Qualifications
- Appointments
- Awards
- Grants
- Research Interests
- Professional Activities
- Publications & Teaching
Summary
Dr. Peter Höfner is a Professor in the School of Computing at the Australian National University, where he also regularly serves as Acting Head of School. His research transforms how software systems are developed — ensuring their trustworthiness and security to the highest degree possible: the certainty of mathematical proof. He is a recognised leader in the formal analysis of routing and communication protocols, and has led collaborative research with Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group and DARPA.
Research
See the Research page for an overview of Peter's research vision, key projects, and collaborators.
Education
See the Education page for an overview of Peter's curriculum development work, course design, and teaching activities.
Professional Leadership
Peter is the elected Vice Chair of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Technical Committee 2 — Software: Theory and Practice, an international body comprising 17 Working Groups and over 450 researchers and ICT professionals. He served as elected Chair of IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi from 2020 to 2025, and is an elected member of IFIP Working Group 2.3 on Programming Methodology.
He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming (JLAMP) and on the steering committees of RAMiCS and MARS — the latter of which he founded in 2015. He is also a member of the Formal Methods Europe (FME) Industry Committee.
Key Areas of Expertise
- Formal Methods & Software Verification — developing mathematical proofs to guarantee software correctness
- Concurrency & Distributed Systems — verifying real-world concurrent and distributed software
- Protocol Security & High-Assurance Systems — analysing and improving protocols used in critical infrastructure
- Process & Program Algebras — algebraic foundations for reasoning about software behaviour
Formal Qualifications
| July 2009 | Doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.), summa cum laude University of Augsburg, Germany |
| Oct 2003 | Advanced Degree in Mathematics (Diplom-Mathematiker) University of Augsburg, Germany — Mathematics (major), Computer Science (minor), with high distinction |
Appointments
| since Feb 2020 | Professor (promoted 2026, tenured 2023) Australian National University, Australia Associate Director of Education, School of Computing (Apr 2022–Apr 2026) Acting Head of School, School of Computing (recurring) |
| Feb 2020–Dec 2021 | Visiting Scientist Data61, CSIRO (erstwhile NICTA), Australia |
| Feb 2018–Feb 2021 | Honorary Senior Research Fellow Macquarie University, Australia |
| Jan 2018–Dec 2020 | Conjoint Associate Professor University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Oct 2010–Jan 2020 | (Senior/Principal) Research Scientist Data61, CSIRO (formerly NICTA), Australia Software Systems Research Group — promotions in 2013 and 2018 |
| Feb 2011–Nov 2017 | Conjoint (Senior) Lecturer University of New South Wales, Australia |
| Jul 2009–Oct 2010 | Postdoc in Computer Science University of Augsburg, Germany |
Awards & Honours
Grants & Funding
Research Interests
Professional Activities
Publications & Teaching
A full list of publications (100+ peer-reviewed articles) is available on the Publications page. An overview of courses taught since 2006 is available on the Teaching page.