Welcome

I’m a engineer with a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania. My academic work has been in category theory applied to formally verified programming languages. My PhD project, Tealeaves, is a formalization of the (novel) theory of decorated traversable monads.

I previously interned at NASA Langley Research Center where I was examining distributed systems challenges in wildland firefighting and disaster response. Through this work I became involved in Next Generation 9‑1‑1 (NG911), and today I serve on many industry committees and workgroups responsible for NG911 standards:

  • NG9-1-1 Interoperability Task Force
  • NENA Futurists Committee
  • NENA i3 Architecture Working Group
  • NENA Interface Specification Development Working Group
  • NENA Emergency Incident Data Object Conveyance Working Group
  • APCO Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP-to-PSAP) Working Group

Education

2018—2025

PhD, Computer Science

University of Pennsylvania

2014—2015

MSc, Mathematics and the Foundations of Computer Science

University of Oxford

Graduated with Distinction

2010—2014

BS, Mathematics

Florida State University

Graduated with Honors

Journal Papers and Peer-Reviewed Proceedings

  • Lawrence Dunn, Val Tannen, Steve Zdancewic. Structured Monads for Generic First-Order Syntax Metatheory. Journal of Automated Reasoning, 2025 | ResearchGate | BibTeX

  • Lawrence Dunn, Val Tannen, Steve Zdancewic. Syntax Monads for the Working Formal Metatheorist. Applied Category Theory, 2023 | Arxiv

  • Lawrence Dunn, Val Tannen, Steve Zdancewic. Tealeaves: Structured monads for reusable first-order syntax metatheory. Interactive Theorem Proving, 2023 | Dagstuhl

  • Jamie Vicary, Lawrence Dunn. Coherence for Frobenius pseudomonoids and the geometry of linear proofs.

  • Jamie Vicary, Lawrence Dunn. Surface proofs for non-commutative linear logic.

Other links: Google Scholar, ORCID

Other Publications

  • Lawrence Dunn. Category Theoretic Structure for First-Order Abstract Syntax Metatheory Doctorial dissertation. University of Pennsylvania, 2025. | Download

  • Lawrence Dunn, Alwyn Goodloe. Distributed Systems Challenges in Wildland Firefighting NASA Technical Memorandum, 2025. | NTRS

  • Lawrence Dunn. Tealeaves Presentation at CoqPL Workshop, 2022

Teaching

Spring 2020

Lead TA, CIS511 (Theory of Computation)

University of Pennsylvania for Dr. Jean Gallier

Fall 2019

Lead TA, CIS447 (Intro to Networks and Security)

University of Pennsylvania for Dr. Sebastian Angel

Summer 2016

Instructor, MAT0022 (Developmental Mathematics)

North Florida College

Fall 2013

Grader, Advanced Calculus I

Flordia State Univeristy for Dr. Philip Bowers

Spring 2013

Grader, Advanced Calculus II

Flordia State Univeristy for Dr. Eric Klasses

Employment

2015—2016

Research Analyst

North Florida College

Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Accreditation

Skills

These are some of the skills I am comfortable with currently. I am always eager to learn new skills for building more predictable and robust systems.

  • Programming languages: Haskell, Roqc, Rust, Python

  • Ecosystems: NixOS, ATAK

  • General: NG911 Standards, Access Control, Identity Management

Standards

Contact

You are encouraged to use my public GPG key for any reason or none.

Fingerprint: 33B2 5A14 489D DE56 830F 58F4 87D5 9877 CB3F 4F9F
Key ID: 87D5 9877 CB3F 4F9F