Jonathan A. Zvesper

This page is no longer being updated: it is from my days as a PhD student at the ILLC and the CWI in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I've now completed my thesis, entitled 'Playing with Information'. It was supervised by Professor Krzysztof Apt and Professor Johan van Benthem.

You can find my ILLC contact details (which are still valid) using this link; and at the CWI using this one.

On this page you can read about my PhD research interests and some things i have written or am writing. You can find out about some events that i am or have been involved in organising, and also look at my cv.

Research

My research is concerned with logic and formal representations of mental states like belief and knowledge. Some of my work consists in understanding and contributing to analyses of concepts from game theory in terms of the players' beliefs. That's perhaps my central research topic at the moment, but in addition to this i'm also examining connections that logics for belief have with other disciplines, for example with distributed programming and with ethics.

photograph by Ji Ruan

Some papers

(If there is a [pdf] link, you can click it to see the paper. If there is no link please mail me if you'd like a copy.)

Reviewed papers

• "Keep Hoping for Rationality: a solution to the backward induction paradox" [pdf]
  (with Alexandru Baltag and Sonja Smets; Synthese, 169(2):301-333, 2009.
• "Common Knowledge in Interaction Structures" [pdf]
  (with Andreas Witzel and Krzysztof Apt; accepted at TARK XII)
• "Assumption-Incompleteness in Modal Logic" [pdf]
  (with Eric Pacuit; published in the proceedings of LOFT 2008)
• "Strategy Elimination in Games with Interaction Structures"
  (with Andreas Witzel and Krzysztof Apt; submitted to TARK XII)
• "Epistemic logic and explicit knowledge in distributed programming (short paper)" [pdf]
  (with Andreas Witzel; published in proceedings of AAMAS 2008)
• "Explicit Knowledge Programming for Computer Games"
  (with Andreas Witzel and Ethan Kennerly; published in proceedings of AIIDE 2008)
• "Higher-Order knowledge in computer games"
  (with Andreas Witzel; proceedings of AISB 2008)
• "How to keep on changing your mind, dynamically"
  (published in proceedings of Logic, Rationality and Interaction 2007)
• "Logique dynamique pour les actions cognitives"
  (with Cédric Dégremont; published in proceedings of Modèles Formels de l'Interaction 2007)

Unpublished papers

• "Monadic Second Order Logic is closed for product update" [pdf]
• "The Brandenburger-Keisler paradox in normal model logics"
• "Common beliefs and public announcements in strategic games with arbitrary strategy sets" (with Krzysztof Apt)
• "There are assumption-complete belief models for the basic modal language" [pdf]

Working papers (i.e. not yet available):

• "Topological models and transfinite reasoning in strategic games"
• "Softening Rational Dynamics"
• "Rational equilibria of pure strategies in games of imperfect information"
• "What you really want: deriving preference from belief"
• "Modal languages for rationality"

Scientific talks and presentations

• PALMYR-VIII 2009
• ILLC GLoRiClass seminar
• Logic and Intelligent Interaction 2008
• DGL 2008
• LOFT 2008
• PALMYR-VII 2008
• AISB 2008
• AAMAS 2008
• ILLC Logic Tea seminar series
• ILLC dynamic logic working sessions
• Logic, Rationality and Interaction 2007

Dissertations

• MSc thesis: "Belief revision and epistemic acts"
  (supervised by Professor Krister Segerberg and Dr. Eric Pacuit; 2006)
• Mémoire de maîtrise: "L'Interprétation de la logique modale de premier ordre"
  (supervised by Professor François Rivenc; 2005)
• BA thesis: "The Meaning of proper names"
  (supervised by Dr. Ben Morison; 2004)

Some recent and current activities

• Co-organiser (with Henri Galinon and Alessandro Facchini) of the
  Paris-Amsterdam-Lausanne Logic Meetings of Young Researchers. (2006-present)
• Instructor for "Formal models and ethics" (summer 2008)
• Teaching assistant for Inleiding Logica.
  (An introductory logic course taught by Jan Jaspars; Autumn 2006 and Autumn 2007)
• Co-organiser (with Joel Uckelman and Edgar Andrade)
  of the ILLC's Logic Tea. (2006-2008)
• Co-editor (with Jacob Vosmaer) of the ILLC magazine. (2006-2008)
• Co-organiser (with Fernando Velazquez-Quesada)
  of dynamic logic working sessions (2007-2008).
• Co-organiser (with Marc Staudacher) of the GLoRiClass half-time event. (February 2008)

CV

Current position

I am currently a PhD student in the GLoRiClass research training site.  I am a Marie Curie research fellow, and am affiliated with the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) and the Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI - the Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science).

Education

2005-2006 MSc Logic, ILLC; graduated cum laude

2004-2005 Maîtrise de Logique, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne; Graduated second in year group with mention bien

2000-2004 Philosophy and Modern Languages, University of Oxford; Graduated with first class honours

2002-2003 DUT Informatique, Université Montpellier II; Graduated top of year group

Awards and prizes

Marie Curie research fellowship (awarded by Cordis, held 2006-2009)

Evert Willem Beth scholarship (Beth Stichting, 2005-2006)

Roy Jenkins memorial scholarship (Europaeum Foundation, 2004-2005)

Entente cordiale scholarship (Institut Français, 2004-2005)

Fitzgerald prize for performance in final examinations (Exeter College, Oxford, 2004)

Fluchère prize for essays on French literature (Exeter College, Oxford, 2003)