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

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.

• Project repository: https://gitlab.com/nicolasbehr/ReSMT
• Documentation: online | PDF | installation instructions | gallery of examples