Originally from Montreal, Lerner earned his bachelor of engineering degree from McGill University and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, several distinguished papers awards, and a UC San Diego Computer Science Teacher of the Year Award.
His recent research has focused on two directions: using AI, machine learning and large language models (LLMs) to build proofs about programs; and using human-centered design, with user studies, to create better programming environments. His studies range from theoretical formal methods to low-level runtime, and from AI/LLMs to human-centered design.
Lerner succeeded Kavita Bala, the inaugural dean of Cornell Bowers, who was named provost in 2024, and Thorsten Joachims, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of computer science and information science, who served as interim dean of the college.
