Luca Viganò is Professor of Computer Science in the Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, King’s College London. He is also Vice Dean for External Relations and Head of the Cybersecurity Group. Recently dubbed a ‘computer scientist by day, playwright by night‘, Professor Luca’s research interests include: Formal Methods for security; Security logics; Security testing; Labelled deduction for non-classical logics (modal logics, substructural logics, etc.); and Combination of logics. Equally, he has had several plays professionally produced in Italy (by theatres comparable to the Old Vic).
Professor Viganò is Italian and studied electronic engineering in his hometown Genoa. He moved to Germany for a PhD in Computer Science. He then spent three years at ETH Zurich and seven years in Verona, before joining King’s College London in October 2013.
In his research life, Professor Viganò develops formal and automated approaches based on mathematical logic to model and analyse security protocols, web services, web applications, socio-technical systems and cyber-physical systems. He uses plays, movies, novels and popular culture artworks in his modules on cryptography and security, which students find interesting and refreshing.
Performance and Artistic Collaborations
Professor Viganò’s plays take on very diverse subjects. Galois is about Evariste Galois (one of the fathers of modern algebra) who died in a duel in 1832. The Game of Kings is about José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine (the third and the fourth world chess champions). Capablanca was undefeated for eight years before losing the title to Alekhine in 1927. They never had a return match as Alekhine refused to concede it.
More information about Professor Viganò’s plays can be found at: www.lucavigano.com.
