Most Productive PL Researchers (May 2026)

Here is an (unashamedly self-serving) list of the most productive Programming Languages researchers in the past 5 years, according to the number of publications in top-tier conferences (POPL, PLDI, ICFP, and OOPSLA) and number of coauthors.

The data was extracted on 2025-05-08 from https://nebelwelt.net/pubstats/top-authors-sys_pl.html (courtesy of Mathias Payer); it is processed to show rankings based on the 22-26 and Rel5 columns, and augmented (with the help of Codex) with affiliation and title information, with the source of that info hyperlinked for easy verification.

22-26: Number of top-tier conference publications in the last 5 years.
Rel5: Same, but adjusted for each paper’s number of coauthors (single-author paper counts as 1; two-author paper counts as 0.5; etc.).

Top 50 by publication count in the last 5 years

Sorted by the 22-26 column descending, then by Rel5 descending, then by name.

Rank	Name	Affiliation	Title	Total	22-26	Rel5
1	Lars Birkedal	Aarhus University	Professor	48	21	4.89
2	Derek Dreyer	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Scientific Director	56	17	3.22
=3	Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira	University of Hong Kong	Associate Professor	31	16	5.48
=3	Isil Dillig	University of Texas at Austin	Professor	50	16	3.39
5	Robbert Krebbers	Radboud University	Associate professor - Software Science	29	15	4.83
6	Jonathan Immanuel Brachthäuser	University of Tübingen	Full Professor	20	14	3.87
7	Thomas W. Reps	University of Wisconsin-Madison	J. Barkley Rosser Professor & Rajiv and Ritu Batra Chair Emeritus	49	13	3.95
=8	Nicolas Wu	Imperial College London	Professor of Computer Science	22	12	4.03
=8	Loris D’Antoni	University of California San Diego	Associate Professor	26	12	3.03
=10	Rupak Majumdar	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Scientific Director	34	11	3.23
=10	Zhendong Su 0001	ETH Zurich	Full Professor	44	11	3.19
=10	Sam Lindley	University of Edinburgh	Reader in Programming Language Design and Implementation	20	11	2.58
=10	Ranjit Jhala	University of California San Diego	Professor, Computer Science and Engineering	44	11	2.48
=10	Joseph Tassarotti	New York University	Assistant Professor of Computer Science	17	11	2.33
=15	Hiroshi Unno 0001	Tohoku University	Professor	15	10	3.92
=15	Azalea Raad	Imperial College London	Reader (Associate Professor) in Programming Languages	19	10	2.54
=15	Deepak Garg 0001	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Tenured faculty	24	10	2.41
=15	Michael Sammler	Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)	Assistant Professor	12	10	1.83
=19	Lionel Parreaux	HKUST	Assistant Professor	11	9	3.58
=19	Viktor Vafeiadis	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Tenured faculty	39	9	2.62
=19	Gilles Barthe	Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy	Scientific director	30	9	2.43
=19	Philipp Schuster	University of Tübingen	Researcher	13	9	2.37
=19	Steve Zdancewic	University of Pennsylvania	Schlein Family President’s Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair	33	9	2.21
=19	Zhong Shao 0001	Yale University	Thomas L. Kempner Professor of Computer Science	40	9	2.05
=19	Éric Tanter	Universidad de Chile	Profesor Titular	28	9	2.01
=26	Ugo Dal Lago	University of Bologna	Professor	18	8	3.25
=26	Azadeh Farzan	University of Toronto	Professor	18	8	3.00
=26	Umang Mathur 0001	National University of Singapore	Presidential Young Professor (Assistant Professor)	13	8	2.92
=26	Shriram Krishnamurthi	Brown University	Professor of Computer Science	20	8	2.90
=26	P. Madhusudan	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Professor, Computer Science	24	8	2.70
=26	Stephanie Weirich	University of Pennsylvania	ENIAC President’s Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science	34	8	2.68
=26	Nicolas Tabareau	Inria	Inria Senior Researcher	15	8	2.29
=26	Benjamin C. Pierce	University of Pennsylvania	Henry Salvatori Professor	45	8	2.21
=26	Ningning Xie	University of Toronto	Assistant Professor	13	8	2.17
=26	Alejandro Aguirre 0001	Aarhus University	Assistant Professor	12	8	1.72
=26	Joost-Pieter Katoen	RWTH Aachen University	Universitätsprofessor	13	8	1.72
=26	Nadia Polikarpova	University of California San Diego	Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering	19	8	1.69
=38	Jules Jacobs	ETH Zurich	Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Theoretical Computer Systems	8	7	2.67
=38	Sharon Shoham	Tel Aviv University	Professor	17	7	2.14
=38	Benjamin Lucien Kaminski	Saarland University	Professor	12	7	2.02
=38	Michael Carbin	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Associate Professor	19	7	2.01
=38	François Pottier	Inria	Senior Researcher	23	7	1.98
=38	Peter Müller 0001	ETH Zurich	Full Professor	18	7	1.88
=38	Amir Kafshdar Goharshady	University of Oxford	Associate Professor of Computer Science	14	7	1.87
=38	Amin Timany	Aarhus University	Associate Professor	17	7	1.74
=38	Gagandeep Singh 0001	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Assistant Professor	12	7	1.65
=38	Klaus Ostermann	University of Tübingen	Professor	26	7	1.65
=38	Adam Chlipala	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Arthur J. Conner (1888) Professor of Computer Science	29	7	1.57
=38	Simon Oddershede Gregersen	CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security	Tenure-Track Faculty	9	7	1.16
50	Taro Sekiyama	National Institute of Informatics	Associate Professor	12	6	2.42

Top 50 by relative publication count in the last 5 years

Sorted by the Rel5 column descending, then by 22-26 descending, then by name.

Rank	Name	Affiliation	Title	Total	22-26	Rel5
1	Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira	University of Hong Kong	Associate Professor	31	16	5.48
2	Lars Birkedal	Aarhus University	Professor	48	21	4.89
3	Robbert Krebbers	Radboud University	Associate professor - Software Science	29	15	4.83
4	Nicolas Wu	Imperial College London	Professor of Computer Science	22	12	4.03
5	Thomas W. Reps	University of Wisconsin-Madison	J. Barkley Rosser Professor & Rajiv and Ritu Batra Chair Emeritus	49	13	3.95
6	Hiroshi Unno 0001	Tohoku University	Professor	15	10	3.92
7	Jonathan Immanuel Brachthäuser	University of Tübingen	Full Professor	20	14	3.87
8	Lionel Parreaux	HKUST	Assistant Professor	11	9	3.58
9	Isil Dillig	University of Texas at Austin	Professor	50	16	3.39
10	Ugo Dal Lago	University of Bologna	Professor	18	8	3.25
11	Rupak Majumdar	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Scientific Director	34	11	3.23
12	Derek Dreyer	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Scientific Director	56	17	3.22
13	Zhendong Su 0001	ETH Zurich	Full Professor	44	11	3.19
14	Loris D’Antoni	University of California San Diego	Associate Professor	26	12	3.03
15	Azadeh Farzan	University of Toronto	Professor	18	8	3.00
16	András Kovács	University of Gothenburg	Postdoctor	5	3	3.00
17	Umang Mathur 0001	National University of Singapore	Presidential Young Professor (Assistant Professor)	13	8	2.92
18	Shriram Krishnamurthi	Brown University	Professor of Computer Science	20	8	2.90
19	P. Madhusudan	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Professor, Computer Science	24	8	2.70
20	Stephanie Weirich	University of Pennsylvania	ENIAC President’s Distinguished Professor of Computer and Information Science	34	8	2.68
21	Jules Jacobs	ETH Zurich	Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Theoretical Computer Systems	8	7	2.67
22	Viktor Vafeiadis	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Tenured faculty	39	9	2.62
23	Sam Lindley	University of Edinburgh	Reader in Programming Language Design and Implementation	20	11	2.58
24	Azalea Raad	Imperial College London	Reader (Associate Professor) in Programming Languages	19	10	2.54
25	Graham Hutton	University of Nottingham	Professor of Computer Science	11	5	2.50
26	Ranjit Jhala	University of California San Diego	Professor, Computer Science and Engineering	44	11	2.48
27	Gilles Barthe	Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy	Scientific director	30	9	2.43
28	Taro Sekiyama	National Institute of Informatics	Associate Professor	12	6	2.42
29	Deepak Garg 0001	Max Planck Institute for Software Systems	Tenured faculty	24	10	2.41
30	Philipp Schuster	University of Tübingen	Researcher	13	9	2.37
31	Joseph Tassarotti	New York University	Assistant Professor of Computer Science	17	11	2.33
32	Dana Drachsler-Cohen	Technion	Associate Professor, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering	5	5	2.33
33	Nicolas Tabareau	Inria	Inria Senior Researcher	15	8	2.29
34	Hakjoo Oh	Korea University	Professor	16	6	2.25
35	Xin Zhang 0035	Peking University	Assistant Professor	13	6	2.25
36	Zachary Kincaid	Princeton University	Associate Professor of Computer Science	19	6	2.25
37	Steve Zdancewic	University of Pennsylvania	Schlein Family President’s Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair	33	9	2.21
38	Benjamin C. Pierce	University of Pennsylvania	Henry Salvatori Professor	45	8	2.21
39	Martin Elsman	University of Copenhagen	Professor	8	3	2.20
40	Ningning Xie	University of Toronto	Assistant Professor	13	8	2.17
41	Roland Meyer 0001	TU Braunschweig	Professor	8	6	2.17
42	Sharon Shoham	Tel Aviv University	Professor	17	7	2.14
43	Chris Heunen	University of Edinburgh	Professor of Quantum Programming	7	6	2.08
44	Giuseppe Castagna	CNRS / Université Paris Cité / IRIF	CNRS senior researcher at IRIF and director of IRIF	18	4	2.08
45	Zhong Shao 0001	Yale University	Thomas L. Kempner Professor of Computer Science	40	9	2.05
46	Brigitte Pientka	McGill University	Full Professor	13	6	2.03
47	William J. Bowman	University of British Columbia	Assistant Professor	10	4	2.03
48	Benjamin Lucien Kaminski	Saarland University	Professor	12	7	2.02
49	Éric Tanter	Universidad de Chile	Profesor Titular	28	9	2.01
50	Michael Carbin	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Associate Professor	19	7	2.01