Essays for the Luca Cardelli Fest

Luca Cardelli has made exceptional contributions to the field of programming languages and beyond. Throughout his career, he has re-invented himself every decade or so, while continuing to make true innovations. His achievements span many areas: software; language design, including experimental languages; programming language foundations; and the interaction of programming languages and biology. These achievements form the basis of his lasting scientific leadership and his wide impact. A scientific event in honour of Luca Cardelli has been organized in Cambridge (UK) on September 8–9, 2014. This celebration will gather many of Luca’s colleagues and friends. It will include talks on a wide variety of topics, corresponding to many of the areas in which Luca has worked. Complementing these talks, and as a more lasting reflection of the event, many of Luca’s colleagues and friends wrote the short papers included in this informal volume.