Heidi Howard

About

I am a Senior Researcher in the Confidential Computing group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. My research sits at the intersection between the theory and practice of distributed computing, with a focus on developing resilient and trustworthy distributed computer systems. Previously, I was a Research Fellow in Computer Science at Cambridge University’s Trinity Hall (opens in new tab), an Affiliated/Visiting Researcher at VMware Research (opens in new tab), and an Affiliated Lecturer at Cambridge University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology (opens in new tab). I received my Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 2019 for my research on Distributed Consensus (opens in new tab). I am probably best known for my work on the Paxos algorithm, and in particular, the invention of Flexible Paxos (opens in new tab).