Radhia Cousot (6 August 1947 – 1 May 2014) was a French computer scientist known for inventing

abstract interpretation In computer science, abstract interpretation is a theory of sound approximation of the semantics of computer programs, based on monotonic functions over ordered sets, especially lattices. It can be viewed as a partial execution of a computer pro ...

Studies

Radhia Cousot was born on 6 August 1947, in

Sakiet Sidi Youssef Sakiet Sidi Youssef () is a town and commune in the Kef Governorate, Tunisia, near the Algeria–Tunisia border, border with Algeria. As of 2014, it had a population of 6,335. History In Roman times, the town was known as Naraggara. Roman histori ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

, where she survived the massacre of the children in her school on February 8, 1958. She then went to the Lycée de jeunes filles at

Sousse Sousse, Sūsah , or Soussa (, ), is a city in Tunisia, capital of the Sousse Governorate. Located south of the capital Tunis, the city has 271,428 inhabitants (2014). Sousse is in the central-east of the country, on the Gulf of Hammamet, which ...

, the

Lycée français The Agency for French Education Abroad, or Agency for French Teaching Abroad, (; AEFE), is a national public agency under the administration of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France that assures the quality of schools teaching the French nati ...

Algiers Algiers is the capital city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province; it extends over many Communes of Algeria, communes without having its own separate governing body. With 2,988,145 residents in 2008Census 14 April 2008: Offi ...

and then the Polytechnic School of Algiers (where she was ranked 1st and the only woman). She specialized in

mathematical optimization Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

and integer

linear programming Linear programming (LP), also called linear optimization, is a method to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a mathematical model whose requirements and objective are represented by linear function#As a polynomia ...

. Supported by a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

br>fellowship
(1972–1975), she obtained a master's degree in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

( Diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA)) at the

Joseph Fourier University Joseph Fourier University (UJF, , also known as Grenoble I) was a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health. It is now part of the Université Grenoble Alpes. Importance ...

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

in 1972. She obtained her Doctorate ès Sciences/State Doctorate in

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

in Nancy in 1985 under the supervision of .In the 1980s, there existed in France two levels of PhDs, the higher one, the Doctorate ès Sciences/State Doctorate being necessary to access

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

ships. It has since been replaced by the

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

Career

Radhia Cousot was appointed Associate research scientist at the IMAG laboratory of the

(1975–1979) and, from 1980 on, at the

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

, as junior research scientist, research scientist, senior research scientist, and senior research scientist emerita at the Computer Science laboratories of the

Henri Poincaré University The Henri Poincaré University, or Nancy 1, nicknamed UHP, was a public research university located in Nancy, France. UHP formed the Nancy-Université federation with two other institutions in 2005. In 2012, Nancy-Université was merged with U ...

of Nancy (1980–1983), the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

(1984–1988), the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

(1989–2008) where from 1991 she headed the research team “Semantics, Proof and Abstract interpretation”, and the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

(2006–2014).

Scientific achievements

Together with her husband

Patrick Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

, Radhia Cousot is the originator of

, an influential technique in

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematics, mathematically rigorous techniques for the formal specification, specification, development, Program analysis, analysis, and formal verification, verification of software and computer hardware, ...

Abstract interpretation In computer science, abstract interpretation is a theory of sound approximation of the semantics of computer programs, based on monotonic functions over ordered sets, especially lattices. It can be viewed as a partial execution of a computer pro ...

is based on three main ideas. # Any reasoning/proof/static analysis on a computer system refers to a semantics describing, at some level of abstraction, its possible executions. # The reasoning/proof/static analysis should abstract away all semantic properties irrelevant to the reasoning. # Because of undecidability, sound, fully automated, and always terminating reasonings on/proofs/static analysis of computer systems must perform

mathematical induction Mathematical induction is a method for mathematical proof, proving that a statement P(n) is true for every natural number n, that is, that the infinitely many cases P(0), P(1), P(2), P(3), \dots all hold. This is done by first proving a ...

s in the abstract and so, can only be approximate (even with finiteness and decidability hypothesis, because of

combinatorial explosion In mathematics, a combinatorial explosion is the rapid growth of the complexity of a problem due to the way its combinatorics depends on input, constraints and bounds. Combinatorial explosion is sometimes used to justify the intractability of cert ...

beyond tiny systems). In her thesis, Radhia Cousot advanced the semantics, proof, and static analysis methods for

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

and

parallel Parallel may refer to: Mathematics * Parallel (geometry), two lines in the Euclidean plane which never intersect * Parallel (operator), mathematical operation named after the composition of electrical resistance in parallel circuits Science a ...

programs. Radhia Cousot is at the origin of the contacts with

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

in January 1999 that led to the development of Astrée run-time error analyzer from 2001 onwards, a tool for sound

static program analysis In computer science, static program analysis (also known as static analysis or static simulation) is the analysis of computer programs performed without executing them, in contrast with dynamic program analysis, which is performed on programs duri ...

of embedded control/command

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

developed at the

and now distributed by AbsInt GmbH, a German software company specialized on static analysis. Astrée is used in the

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

ation,

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

, and

medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

software industries.

Awards

With

Patrick Cousot Patrick Cousot (born 3 December 1948) is a French computer scientist, currently Silver Professor of Computer Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, USA. Before he was Professor at the École Normale Supéri ...

, she received the ACM

SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award SIGPLAN is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on programming languages. This SIG explores programming language concepts and tools, focusing on design, implementation, practice, and theory. Its members are progra ...

in 2013 and the

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

Harlan D. Mills award in 2014 for “the invention of ‘

’, development of tool support, and its practical application”.

Radhia Cousot best young researcher paper award

Since September 2014, the ''Radhia Cousot best young researcher paper award'' is attributed annually by the program chair on behalf of the program committee of the ''Static Analysis Symposia'' (SAS). * 2014 (

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

): Aleksandar Chakarov (University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA), ''Expectation invariants for probabilistic program loops as fixed points'' (with Sriram Sankaranarayanan), M. Müller-Olm & H. Seidl (Eds.)
SAS 2014 LNCS 8723
pp. 85–100, Springer * 2015 (

Saint Malo Saint-Malo (, , ; Gallo: ; ) is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany. The walled city on the English Channel coast had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the All ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

): Marianna Rapoport (University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), ''Precise Data Flow Analysis in the Presence of Correlated Method Calls'', (with Ondrej Lhoták and Frank Tip), S. Blazy & T. Jensen (Eds.)
SAS 2015LNCS 9291
pp. 54–71, Springer * 2016 (

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

): Stefan Schulze Frielinghaus (Technische Universität München, Germany), ''Enforcing Termination of Interprocedural Analysis'', (with Helmut Seidl and Ralf Vogler), Xavier Rival (Ed.)
SAS 2016LNCS 9837
pp. 447–468, Springer * 2017 (

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, NY, USA): Suvam Mukherjee (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India) and Oded Padon (Tel Aviv University, Israel), ''Thread-Local Semantics and its Efficient Sequential Abstractions for Race-Free Programs'', (with Sharon Shoham, Deepak D'Souza, and Noam Rinetzky), Francesco Ranzato (Ed.)
SAS 2017LNCS 10422
pp 253–276, Springer

Notes

References

External links

at the

Short biography

at the

Radhia Cousot award
at the

Disparition de Radhia Cousot
at th
Institut des sciences de l’information et de leurs interactions
of the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cousot, Radhia 1947 births 2014 deaths 2014 in science French women computer scientists Formal methods people Programming language researchers Software engineering researchers Nancy-Université alumni 20th-century French women scientists