Anil Madhavapeddy is the Professor of Planetary Computing at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, based in the Energy & Environment Group and the Systems Research Group.

I research topics related to computer systems and programming language design and implementation, with a focus on applying it to conservation and biodiversity. I am a member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative where I co-direct the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits and the Cambridge Centre for Earth Observation and collaborate with wonderful colleagues from Plant Sciences, Zoology and Economics. I have held a JM Keynes Fellowship since 2022.

I also teach computer science and am a full Fellow at Pembroke College where I am the co-Director of Computer Science. I enjoy hacking on open-source code and co-founded the MirageOS unikernel framework and am a long-time contributor to projects ranging from OCaml, OpenBSD, Docker, Horde and Xen. The 2nd Edition of my book Real World OCaml was published in Oct 2022 by Cambridge University Press and is available freely online and in print. I would really love to see a pika in real life.

Activities

In the past, I've co-founded Unikernel Systems and High Energy Magic and worked for Docker, Citrix, XenSource, Intel Research, Fraser Research, Imperial College, and NASA MVACS at UCLA. You can read up some of the history over in my projects. I obtained my PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2003 and my BEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College in 1999. I've been on various boards, such as the Tezos Foundation (2021-2024) and Segfault Systems.

Research

Interested graduate students are welcome to get in touch informally, but all applications must go through the department process. You may find my past research and papers as helpful background material before getting in touch.

Teaching

I have been a Fellow at Pembroke College since 2015 and am the Director of Studies for Computer Science there. I have taught the following courses at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory: