Toby Murray

Professor Toby Murray is a Professor in the School of Computing and Information Systems in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne, a position he has held since May 2016. He currently serves as Director of the Defence Science Institute and Co-Lead of the Computer Science Research Group. Murray earned his D.Phil. in Computer Science from the University of Oxford in 2011 and completed undergraduate studies at the University of Adelaide. Before joining the University of Melbourne, he was employed in the Software Systems Research Group at NICTA (now Data61 CSIRO) starting in 2010, served as Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales from 2010, and worked for the Defence Science and Technology Organisation following his undergraduate studies.

Murray's research centers on computer security, with a focus on formal verification, mathematical proofs to ensure the absence of vulnerabilities in programs and systems, cost-effective construction of highly secure computing systems, and vulnerability detection. His contributions include the COVERN logic for compositional verification of information flow control, applied to Defence systems such as the Cross Domain Desktop Compositor. Key publications encompass 'EDEFuzz: Detecting Excessive Data Exposure in Web Applications' (ICSE 2024, Distinguished Paper Award), 'Verified Certified Robustness for Neural Networks' (CAV 2025), 'Legion: Best-first concolic testing' (ICSE 2020), and 'Empirical study towards a leading indicator for cost of formal software verification' (ICSE 2015). His scholarship has accumulated over 2,900 citations. Awards include a share in the 2021 Science and Technology Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia (with University of Melbourne, UNSW, and DSTG colleagues) and the 2022 ACM Software System Award. Murray is Associate Editor for IEEE Security & Privacy and ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security, Program Chair for IEEE CSF 2025, Co-Chair for CSF 2024 and FormaliSE 2023, and serves on steering committees for CSF, FormaliSE, and PLAS, as well as IFIP Working Groups 1.7 and 2.3.

Professional Email: toby.murray@unimelb.edu.au