Patrick Totzke

Hey there! I am a Professor at the Department of Computer science, the University of Liverpool.

research

I work at the intersection of maths and computer science and specialize in the foundations of verification and computation. My interests include

• Algorithmic game theory, especially strategy complexity and infinitary games and MDPs on graphs;
• Decidability and complexity of verification problems such as (bi)simulation, language inclusion, model checking and synthesis;
• Counter automata, vector addition systems / Petri nets and process algebras;
• Computational logics with fixed-points, temporal or probabilistic modalities and associated games.
• Time-sensitive models: timed automata and languages, timed nets and games, and temporal graphs.

See here and the dblp for my published outputs. My work is generously supported by the EPSRC and the European Commission.

postdocs and students

• Di-De Yen (Postdoc on the Games-for-Good project) History-determinism, Games
• Pete Austin (PhD student, 80:20 with Sven Schewe) Games on Temporal Graphs
• Sougata Bose (Postdoc on the COSTRA project, 2021-2024) Verification games, Strategy complexity
  Now in Mikael Randour’s group, Mons, BE
• Manolis Pitsikalis (PhD student, 2020–2023, 40:60 with Alexei Lisitsa)
  Now postdoc at Demokritos, Athens, GR
• Thomas Welsch (PhD student, 2020–2023, 40:60 with Vitaliy Kurlin)
  Now research software engineer at ISML, Oxford, UK

short bio

As of 2024, I am a full professor (personal chair) at the University of Liverpool. I joined Liverpool as a lecturer in 2018 and before that I did postdocs at the LFCS in Edinburgh (from 2016) and spend a year each at the University of Warwick (2015) and LaBRI in Bordeaux (2014). I hold a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and a diploma (Dipl. Inf.) from the University of Hamburg where I grew up.

In my spare time I attempt to play the trumpet and maintain a healthy appreciation of good whisky. I am overly passionate about free software. I have a ha-index of 80 and happily support the initiative.