CV
Contact Information
| Name | Burak Kadron |
| Professional Title | Research Scientist |
| kadron.burak@gmail.com |
Professional Summary
Software engineer and security researcher with a PhD in program analysis and 4 years building fuzzing and constraint-solving tools for smart-contract security. Experienced in language design (parsers, interpreters, DSLs), input generation, and side-channel analysis, with publications at NDSS, ESEC/FSE, ISSTA, and ASE.
Experience
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2022 - present Remote
Research Scientist
Veridise
- Lead engineer on OrCa, Veridise’s fuzzer for Solidity smart contracts (Python), used across the company’s security audits
- Rewrote the LTL-based [V] specification language end to end: updated ANTLR grammar, a generator that converts parse trees to an intermediate representation, and the interpreter
- Designed and built from scratch a hint language that lets users specify how functions are fuzzed; user constraints are compiled to SMT-LIB and solved with Z3 to generate function inputs
- Added on-chain fuzzing support, enabling OrCa to test deployed contracts against live chain state
- Maintained OrCa’s Rust EVM component, keeping it in sync with upstream dependencies including Foundry’s EVM
- Refactored core fuzzing components, improving performance and coverage
- Performed smart-contract and infrastructure security audits for 3 client protocols: ThetaNuts, Manta Network, and Stellar (Soroban core)
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2017 - 2022 Santa Barbara, CA
Graduate Student Researcher
University of California, Santa Barbara
- Developed techniques to detect, quantify, and mitigate side-channel information leakage in encrypted network traffic
- Built TSA, an open-source tool for network side-channel detection and quantification
- Published at NDSS, ISSTA, and ESEC/FSE; represented UCSB Verification Lab in DARPA’s STAC (Space/Time Analysis for Cybersecurity) program
- Mentored one Master’s and two undergraduate students on research projects, including CorbFuzz, a fuzzer for checking browser security policies (ASE 2021)
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2020 - 2020 Remote
Research Intern
NASA Ames Research Center (KBR Inc.)
- Analyzed robustness of Boeing’s runway-image neural network for autonomous center-line tracking
- Built a concolic analysis method that uses the Marabou verifier to check robustness to input perturbations and generate counterexample images
- Published findings as a case study (VSTTE 2021)
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2018 - 2018 Moffett Field, CA
Research Intern
Carnegie Mellon University, CyLab
- Developed input generation techniques for side-channel analysis; represented CMU CyLab in DARPA STAC
- Worked on adversarial input generation for neural networks using symbolic execution (ISSRE 2019)
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2016 - 2018 Santa Barbara, CA
Teaching Assistant
University of California, Santa Barbara
- Data Structures & Algorithms I & II, Formal Languages & Automata
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2013 - 2015 Istanbul, Türkiye
Systems & Research Engineer (Part-time)
Airties Wireless Networks
- Implemented mesh-networking code in C supporting client handover between Wi-Fi routers
Education
Skills
Programming Languages (Proficient): Python, Rust, Solidity, Java, C, Bash
Research Areas (Expert): Fuzzing, Formal Methods, Smart-Contract Auditing, Side-Channel Analysis, SMT-based Constraint Solving, Symbolic Execution
Tools (Proficient): Z3, CVC5, ANTLR, Foundry, EVM, Docker, Git
Service
- Reviewer — ACM SPLASH/ISSTA 2026 Poster Session, (2026)
- Reviewer — ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology - TOSEM 2024, (2024)
- President, Graduate Student Executive Committee — UCSB CS Department, UC Santa Barbara (2022)
- Treasurer, Graduate Student Executive Committee — UCSB CS Department, UC Santa Barbara (2020)
- Local Arrangements and Finance Chair — ISSTA 2020 (2020)