Dr. Sebastian Elbaum is the Technologist-in-Residence at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also a professor in the department of computer science at the University of Virginia, where he cofounded and coleads the Lab for Engineering Safe Software. His research aims to build dependable systems through domain-specific analysis techniques. Elbaum was named fellow by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to testing evolving systems, and fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his contributions to the analysis and testing of evolving systems and robotic systems.

His current research focuses on the development and analysis of safe autonomous systems, including those with learned components. Elbaum is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Career Award, an IBM Innovation Award, a Google Faculty Research Award, an FSE Test of Time Award, five ACM SigSoft Distinguished Paper Awards, and multiple best paper awards. Before joining the University of Virginia, he was a professor at the University of Nebraska, where he cofounded the E2 Software Engineering Lab and the Nimbus Robotics Lab. Elbaum regularly serves on program committees at the top software engineering and robotic conferences; has served as program co-chair for the International Conference on Software Engineering, the International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, and the Empirical Software Engineering Symposium; as coeditor for the journal Information and Software Technology; and as associate editor of the journal ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology. He is a member of the Computing Community Consortium of the Computer Research Association. He is also the cofounder of Drone Amplified, Inc., a company specializing in developing drone payloads and applications. Elbaum received his PhD from the University of Idaho, and a systems engineering degree from Universidad Catolica de Cordoba, Argentina. He spent sabbaticals as a research scientist at Google, CNR, and University College London