Meet our academic staff from the School of Computing & Communications (LZSCC).
Dr Fabio Papacchini
Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Computer Science // Head of Department SCC Leipzig
Dr Fabio Papacchini is an assistant Professor at the department of Computer Science at Lancaster University Leipzig. He received his PhD and a Doctoral Prize fellowship from the University of Manchester. He then moved to the University of Liverpool, where he worked on several research projects such as “Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Nuclear”, “UK Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Hub for Offshore Energy Asset Integrity Management”, and “Science of Sensor System Software”. His main research is in the area of non-classical logics in computer science. His research ranges from model theory, to understand the expressive power and limits of those logics, automated theorem proving, to design and implement formal methods techniques, and knowledge representation and reasoning, to apply those logics and techniques to fields such as ontological reasoning and formal verification.
James Stovold is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science. He completed his MEng and PhD in Computer Science with the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis at the University of York. After returning to academia from industry in 2017, he has worked in a number of British institutions before joining LU Leipzig in 2022. His research interests centre around emergent behaviour and unconventional computing. In particular, he has interests in computing with biological and chemical matter and using modern computer science techniques to help understand biological and cognitive processes.
Tobias Meggendorfer is an Assistant Lecturer at Lancaster University Leipzig at the School of Computing & Communications. Previously, he was Post-Doc at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) / Chatterjee group (2022-2023), after obtaining his PhD (with distinction) at the Technical University Munich (TUM). His research focusses on various aspects of formal verification of probabilistic systems. In particular, he aims to establish a broader recognition for notions of risk in such systems and usage of risk-aware verification.
Guido Schmitz joined Lancaster University Leipzig in 2024, enriching our academic team with his expertise in cyber security. His research is dedicated to developing innovative methodologies for rigorously scrutinising, improving, and verifying the security and privacy properties of modern interconnected IT systems. For example, through the application of formal methods, he has successfully identified and fixed severe vulnerabilities in core security protocols of the modern World Wide Web. Guido actively collaborates closely with esteemed standardisation organisations, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), to fortify critical infrastructures and establish robust formal guarantees for their security.
Throughout his academic journey, Guido has made remarkable achievements: He obtained his first-class Diplom degree (c.f. MSci) in Computer Science from the University of Trier as best of the cohort. Furthermore, he was awarded his PhD with distinction by the University of Stuttgart. He also played an integral role in setting up the Institute of Information Security at the University of Stuttgart, where he then held a Postdoctoral position. He continued to advance his career as a Lecturer in the world-renowned Information Security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London, before joining Lancaster University Leipzig as an Assistant Professor.
Amna Asif is an Engagement Lead and Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Lancaster University Leipzig. Her research focuses on critical areas such as disaster management, sustainability, and diversity. Her primary research interests include human-computer interaction and artificial intelligence. She has served as PI and Co-PI on successful research grants, including a consortium research grant for the TaaraSkillQuest project under the Unternehmen Revier program in Saxony, one of the pioneering external grants at Lancaster University Leipzig. Additionally, she has collaborated with IT companies to create a dynamic environment that fosters research, knowledge exchange, industry exposure, and student-industry collaborative projects, benefiting both colleagues and students.
Aakash Ahmad is currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Computing and Software Engineering at the School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University Leipzig, Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland. With over 12 years of professional experience, Aakash has worked in diverse roles including software engineer, lecturer, postdoctoral researcher, and technology consultant across various institutions and organizations in Pakistan, Ireland, Denmark, and Saudi Arabia.
His research and development focus lies in the field of software engineering, with applications in mobile and quantum software systems. Aakash has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, with several appearing in top-tier (A and A+) ranked conferences and journals. He has supervised and co-supervised numerous master’s theses and one Ph.D. dissertation in the areas of mobile computing, cloud computing, and software architecture. Recently, Aakash secured research funding of €50K approx. to explore software engineering processes and architecture for the development of quantum software systems.
Jie-Jun Hu-Bolz is an Assistant Professor in computing. She was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Human Development (Berlin) and the University of Essex (UK). Her research interests include incentive mechanisms design and game theory in various scenarios, such as IoT, mobile crowdsensing, SDN, blockchain, and large-scale dynamic systems. Her work primarily uses sophisticated mathematical methods to conceptualise multi-agent systems and investigate their complex dynamics. She has frequently published in IEEE Transactions. Currently, she is a PI of the EU-MSCA-SE Program.
Thomas Schmid is a Lecturer in Computing at Lancaster University in Leipzig and a founding member of the LZSCC department. His research focuses on developing novel algorithms and applications for machine learning, deep learning and hybrid artificial intelligence. Thomas is chair and co-founder of the LEISYS conference, co-author of the book “Künstliche Intelligenz managen und verstehen” and engages frequently with international conferences and journals in the area of AI and medical applications of AI.
Dr David Georg Reichelt
Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Computer Science and Software Engineering
David Georg Reichelt is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Lancaster University Leipzig. He joined from the computing center of Leipzig University, where he did his PhD and served as scientific staff. His main research interest is in the field of software performance engineering, where is examines how to identify and understand performance changes that happen during the software development lifecycle.
Neeraj Suri holds the Distinguished Professorship and Chair in Cybersecurity at Lancaster University (in UK and at Leipzig, Germany) where he co-directed the university-wide Lancaster Security Institute. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Dept. of CS at UMass-Amherst. Suri previously held the Chair Professorship on “Dependable Systems & Software” at TU Darmstadt, Germany. Following his PhD at UMass-Amherst, he has held positions at AlliedSignal/Honeywell Research, Boston Univ, Saab Endowed Chair Professorship, multiple sabbaticals at Microsoft Research, and visiting positions at the Univ of Texas at Austin, Academia Sincia, PolyU Hong Kong and Technion.
His research broadly spans the design, analysis, and assessment of trustworthy (dependable & secure) systems. His current focus is on a) Compositional Security, b) Robust and Secure ML and c) Secure Autonomous Systems including threat profiling and the quantification of security.
More details here.
Dr Phillip Benachour
Visiting Senior Teaching Fellow in Computing and Communications, Lancaster University
Christoph Jansen has been an Assistant Professor of Data Science at Lancaster University Leipzig since June 2024. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher and habilitation candidate at the Department of Statistics at LMU Munich. In his research, Christoph uses methods from decision and game theory as well as the theory of imprecise probabilities to make machine learning methods more reliable and robust to their implicit assumptions.
Marco Caminati is an Assistant Professor Lancaster University Leipzig School of Computing and Communications, after having been an Associate Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews and Principal Investigator of a four-year MRC-UKRI project. He does research at some spots at the frontier between Mathematics and Computer Science: using logic to combine proof assistants and constraint solvers to provide certified, correct-by-construction solutions to problems in high-stakes domains such as healthcare and finance; and taking advantage of computers to find new mathematical results and new proofs for existing ones, especially to make them amenable to full certification using formal methods.
