Meet Lorenzo Alvisi, MS ’94, Ph.D. ’96
Professor Alvisi holds a laurea in physics from the University of Bologna, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell. Prior to returning to Cornell full time in 2017, he held an Endowed Professorship in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was also a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
Alvisi’s research focuses on both foundational and applied aspects of reliable distributed computing. He is well-known for his work on so-called Byzantine fault-tolerant systems. These systems, which lie at the foundation of most of today’s blockchain implementations, are designed to defy Murphy's Law: they must continue to operate correctly even when facing circumstances (whether accidental or coordinated by a malicious adversary) that can cause them to experience arbitrary failures.
He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and was awarded the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Humboldt Research Award from Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung. In 2017, he co-founded the Cornell, Maryland, Max Planck Pre-doctoral Research Summer School where he continues to serve as co-director.
