Sara Kalvala specializes in formal methods and computational biology. After obtaining a BSc in Biology from the Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil, she did a conversion master’s degree at the University of Hyderabad, India, and then received a PhD in computer science from the University of California, Davis, where she studied theorem-proving methodologies for hardware verification.
She then came to the University of Cambridge, UK to continue looking at theorem proving and diverse logic-based formal methods. She explored variant logics such as linear logic and temporal logic and their role in formal verification, and was also involved in the development and documentation of the HOL and Isabelle proof systems. From hardware, she moved on to look at software verification, particularly the issue of compiler verification and the correctness of optimizations that are embedded in most modern compilers.
After moving to the University of Warwick, UK as a faculty member, and reflecting on the increasing role of computer modeling in biology, she began working in computational biology. She is especially interested in understanding how individual cells or microorganisms communicate and coordinate with each other to give rise to emergent behavior and complex structures such as tissues and biofilms. Bringing together her two main interests, she is currently applying compilation techniques in biology under the exciting new umbrella of synthetic biology, where a computational view is applied in making genetic engineering methodologies more robust and effective. She is now involved in several British interdisciplinary consortia working on synthetic biology.
As a faculty member, Sara has also been very interested in how to make computer science education more exciting and accessible. How to teach programming to beginners is an important concern, and the increasing societal relevance of computer games and interactive gadgets may play an important role in teaching, as well as the public understanding of, computing as a scientific discipline.
