Mathias Pedersen
Principal Security Engineer at Microsoft
Cork, Ireland
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMathias Pedersen is a Principal Security Engineer based in Cork with 12 years of experience applying academic rigor to real-world code security. He holds a PhD in programming language semantics and language-based security and has transitioned that research expertise into industrial-scale static analysis work, notably enhancing GitHub's widely used CodeQL libraries for C/C++—optimizing memory, improving dataflow analysis, and introducing mechanisms to hide sensitive instructions. At Microsoft (formerly GitHub) he focuses on making C/C++ codebases secure enterprise-wide, bringing deep compiler and semantics knowledge to practical tooling. His background includes a Harvard visiting scholarship and a strong teaching record, reflecting both research pedigree and the ability to explain complex concepts. An uncommon strength is his blend of formal language theory with hands-on backend maintenance of a flagship open-source security project, enabling both precision and production robustness.
12 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Computer Science, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Computer Science at Aarhus UniversityGymnasieeksamen Science, Gymnasieeksamen Science at Vejle Tekniske Gymnasium
Danish, English
Github Skills (12)
algorithm10
data-structures10
algorithms10
maintenance10
datastructures-algorithms10
c-language10
cprogramming-language10
data-structure10
code-generation9
code-optimization9
debug8
debugging8
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
github/codeql
Dec 2019 - Jan 2023
CodeQL: the libraries and queries that power security researchers around the world, as well as code scanning in GitHub Advanced Security
Role in this project:
Backend Developer & Code Maintainer
Backend Developer & Code MaintainerContributions:3814 reviews, 2012 commits, 1675 PRs in 3 years 1 month
Contributions summary:Mathias focused on enhancing and maintaining the CodeQL library for C/C++ within the github/codeql repository. The contributions included memory optimization through the use of equivalence relations, synchronizing identical files across multiple languages, fixing bugs related to the creation of basic blocks, updating documentation, and implementing a new mechanism to hide specific instructions and operands. The user's work demonstrated improvements to existing dataflow analysis and code generation components.
github-advanced-securitysecurity-toolsgithub-security-labsecurity-researcherssecurity
MathiasVP/backtrack
Mar 2019 - Nov 2023
Contributions:8 pushes, 1 branch in 4 years 8 months
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