Nicolas Behr

Nicolas Behr

CNRS Researcher in Computer Science

Université Paris Cité, CNRS, IRIF, France

I am a CNRS researcher in theoretical computer science with Institut de recherche en informatique fondamentale (IRIF), the Computer Science laboratory of Université Paris Cité, where I am a member of the Preuves, programmes et systèmes group. Previously, I have been a Short-Term Fellow at CRI Paris in spring and summer of 2020, working on the development of tracelet-analysis algorithms for the biochemistry platform Kappa and for the organo-chemistry platform MØD. I previously held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2017-2019), working in the field of theoretical computer science at IRIF, Université Paris Diderot. The aim of my project with Jean Krivine (IRIF) consisted in developing extensions of my rule-algebraic framework to restricted variants of rewriting and to the biochemical reaction language Kappa. I am also frequently to be found at the LPTMC of the UPMC/Sorbonne/Paris 06, working with Gérard H.E. Duchamp (Paris 13) and Karol A. Penson (Paris 6) on topics in combinatorics. My previous positions include a Postdoc position with Vincent Danos at ENS Paris and at University of Edinburgh (2014-2017) and a Postdoc position in mathematical physics with Anatoly Konechny at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (2011-2014).

I am the Scientific Coordinator of the ANR project CoREACT - Coq-based Rewriting: towards Executable Applied Category Theory (2023 - 2027).

Together with Andrea Corradini, Reiko Heckel and Jean Krivine, I am organizing the GReTA - Graph Transformation Theory and Applications online seminar series - see www.irif.fr/~greta for more information and seminar announcements.

News

I am delighted to report that our ANR project CoREACT (“Coq-based Rewriting: towards Executable Applied Category Theory”) has been selected for funding! The project will start in March 2023, and you can watch an overview of the project goals and research ideas here and here. The kick-off meeting will take place on April 19, 2023 at IRIF, Université Paris Cité.

Professional service 2023: PC member of CALCO 2023 and ICGT 2023; managing guest editor for the JLAMP ICGT 2022 Special Issue

I have been invited to give a talk at the “Category Theory at Work in Computational Mathematics and Theoretical Informatics” meeting at the Lie-Størmer Center, a newly founded Norwegian research center for fundamental structures in computational and pure mathematics.

Selected Talks & Activities

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26/06/2023 - 30/06/2023 “Category Theory at Work in Computational Mathematics and Theoretical Informatics” meeting (invited talk), Lie-Størmer Center, Bergen, Norway
08/06/2023 - 09/06/2023 “François Métayer days” (participant), IRIF, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
06/06/2023 - 07/06/2023 “LHC days 2023”, IRIF, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
25/05/2023 - 26/05/2023 Journées PPS (talk; slides), IRIF, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
24/04/2023 - 25/04/2023 IFIP WG1.3 Foundations of System Specification (participant), Paris, France
19/04/2023 ANR CoREACT kick-off meeting (participant/organiser), IRIF, Université de Paris, France
02/12/2022 Catégories supérieures, polygraphes et homotopie workgroup (talk), IRIF, Université de Paris, France
30/11/2022 - 02/12/2022 Virtual Double Categories Workshop (talk; slides, video), online
28/11 - 29/11/2022 “Combinatorics and Arithmetic for Physics: special days” workshop (invited talk; slides, video), Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS), Bures sur Yvette, France
14 – 16/11/2022 GDR Renormalisation - Annual Meeting 2022: Hopf Algebras and Applications (talk), Univ. du Littoral Côte d’Opale Calais, France
14 – 16/09/2022 20th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology (CMSB 2022) (online participant), Bucharest, Romania
18 - 22/07/2022 APPLIED CATEGORY THEORY 2022 (online participant), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
07 - 08/07/2022 15th International Conference on Graph Transformation (ICGT 2022) (co-chair), Nantes, France
06/07/2022 13th International Workshop on Graph Computation Models (GCM 2022) (participant), Nantes, France
09/06/2022 Topos Institute Colloquium (talk), online
30/05 - 31/05/2022 Discrete-event systems and Environmental Sciences meeting (talk), Centre Inria de Paris, France
30/11 - 02/12/2021 “Combinatorics and Arithmetic for Physics: special days” workshop (invited talk; video, slides), Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS), Bures sur Yvette, France

Videos

Software

Based upon joint work with Reiko Heckel and Maryam Ghaffari Saadat (University of Leicester), I am developing the ReSMT Python package, which aims to implement rewriting-theoretic concepts via utilizing the Microsoft Z3 theorem prover as the computational core. At present (v. 0.0.3), the package covers typed directed multigraphs (TDGs) with structural constraints as its base datatype, with some of the key operations implemented including the search for partial overlaps of TDGs modulo structural constraints formulated via forbidden pattern non-embedding assertions.

Interests
  • Stochastic rewriting systems
  • Combinatorics of dynamical systems
  • Moment bisimulations
  • Tracelets
Education
  • PhD in Mathematical Physics, 2012

    Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Golm and Humboldt University Berlin

  • Diploma in Mathematical Physics, 2008

    Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Golm and Humboldt University Berlin