Alex Potanin

Alex co-authored Qafnyc, enabling researchers to check quantum programs using Dafny; the published evaluation verified 37 programs. Earlier ownership research influenced Rust’s memory-safety features, while Wyvern’s module design informed CUE, used within Alibaba’s cloud infrastructure. Together, these contributions connect language design with practical ways to constrain software behaviour and check correctness, supported by active research-community leadership.

Alex Potanin is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University, researching programming languages, cybersecurity, and formal verification. After completing a BSc(Hons) and PhD at Victoria University of Wellington, Alex produced foundational research on ownership types and immutability that helped shape Rust’s lifetime parameters for memory safety.

Alongside Jonathan Aldrich, Alex co-created Wyvern, a programming language designed around security and usability whose module system informed the CUE configuration language used within Alibaba’s cloud infrastructure. Since moving to ANU in 2022, projects have included Fiducia, a language developed for secure embedded systems, and Qafnyc, which translates quantum-program correctness checks into Dafny. In 2025, an evaluation of Qafnyc successfully verified 37 quantum programs.

Within the wider academic community, Alex chairs the SPLASH Steering Committee and serves as Member at Large and Treasurer of the ACM SIGPLAN Executive Committee, balancing international leadership with directing an ANU research group.