We are looking for an enthusiastic student with a strong background in logic.

The PhD project is granted by the Swiss National Science Foundation over a period of three years. Salary and employment conditions are attractive. We offer a stimulating and enjoyable working environment in a internationally oriented research group. The city of Bern features modern culture surrounded by old world ambiance. It provides all year round recreational activities in a breathtaking environment.

University regulations require doctoral students to hold a Master's or equivalent degree (e.g. Diplom). Applications should include a curriculum vitae together with a transcript of records.

To apply or for further information please contact Thomas Studer by email (tstuder@iam.unibe.ch).


Project description:
The problem of data privacy is to verify that confidential information stored 
in an information system is not provided to unauthorized users and, therefore, 
personal and other sensitive data remain private. The main challenge in such a 
context is to share some data while protecting other personally identifiable 
information. The aim of our project is to develop formal methods and the 
corresponding algorithms to enable automated reasoning about data privacy.

In particular we are interested in the following questions:
1. What can a user infer from the information to which he has access?
2. How can we guarantee that an unauthorized user cannot obtain any knowledge 
about private information?

We will address those questions not in their full generality, but we intend to 
study the case of ontological knowledge base systems. That means we will mainly 
use techniques from modal logic in general and description logic in particular.