Tim Nelson
· Associate Teaching Professor of Computer ScienceVerifiedBrown University · Computer Science
Active 1978–2024
About
Tim Nelson is a faculty member of the Brown University Programming Languages Team (Brown PLT), which focuses on the design, learning, and analysis of programming languages. The team works on building languages, analyzing them, and applying formal methods such as verification. Their research also includes creating environments and tools for working with languages and verifiers, as well as authoring educational books on these topics. Among their projects is Pyret, a language that combines functional and scripting paradigms aimed at teaching and general-purpose programming, and Forge, a tool for formal modeling inspired by Alloy. The group also maintains a modified version of the Rust programming language and produces educational materials such as the widely used programming languages book PLAI (Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation) and a new book titled DCIC (A Data-Centric Introduction to Computing), which reflects their research-driven approach to learning programming. Tim Nelson contributes to this collaborative environment that balances theory, systems, and human-computer interaction, often working closely with other faculty and researchers within and beyond Brown University.
Research topics
- Computer science
- Programming language
- Software engineering
- Distributed computing
- Artificial intelligence
Frequent coauthors
- 63 shared
Shriram Krishnamurthi
- 17 shared
Ben Greenman
University of Utah
- 12 shared
Siddhartha Prasad
John Brown University
- 9 shared
Tristan Dyer
- 8 shared
Daniel J. Dougherty
- 8 shared
Kathi Fisler
Providence College
- 7 shared
Sam Saarinen
- 6 shared
Natasha Danas
Labs
Our work unifies under themes of design, learning, and languages. We build languages, analyze them, and take them apart. We work on verification and other forms of formal methods. We create environments and other tools for working with languages and verifiers. We also write books for understanding these topics.
Education
- 2013
PhD, Computer Science
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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