Sophie Libkind

I am currently a research scientist at the Topos Institute.

I co-lead the TA1.1 Theory technical area of ARIA's Safeguarded AI programme with David Jaz Myers. In this role, I coordinate the research and writing of a mathematical thesis on modeling, specification, and verification based on double operadic theory of systems.

In my PhD, I studied computation and composition in dynamical systems. Here is a short video introduction to my PhD research - [video].

2021 - present: Topos Institute (Research Scientist, 2024 - present; Postdoctoral Researcher, 2023 - 2024; Research Associate, 2021 - 2023)
2018 - 2023: PhD candidate in the Department of Mathematics at Stanford University
2015 - 2018: Computer Science and Math teacher at the Girls' Middle School
2014 - 2015: Part III Masters student in the Department of Mathematics at University of Cambridge
2010 - 2014: Math and Computer Science major at Swarthmore College

Keri D'Angelo and Sophie Libkind. Dependent Directed Wiring Diagrams for Composing Instantaneous Systems. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2025). [paper]
Benjamin Merlin Bumpus, Sophie Libkind, Jordy Lopez Garcia, Layla Sorkatti, and Samuel Tenka. Additive Invariants of Open Petri Nets. Compositionality (2025). [paper]
Sophie Libkind and David I. Spivak. Pattern Runs on Matter: The Free Monad Monad as a Module over the Cofree Comonad Comonad. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2024). [paper]
Sophie Libkind, Andrew Baas, Micah Halter, Evan Patterson, and James P. Fairbanks. An Algebraic Framework for Structured Epidemic Modeling. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A (2022). [paper]
John Baez, Xiaoyan Li, Sophie Libkind, Nathaniel D. Osgood, and Evan Patterson. Compositional Modeling with Stock and Flow Diagrams. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2022). [paper]
Sophie Libkind, Andrew Baas, Evan Patterson, and James Fairbanks. Operadic Modeling of Dynamical Systems: Mathematics and Computation. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2021). [paper]
Alexandre Donzé, Sophie Libkind, Sanjit A. Seshia, and David Wessel. Control Improvisation with Application to Music. International Computer Music Conference (2013). [paper]

Sophie Libkind. Composition and Computation in Dynamical Systems. PhD Thesis, Stanford University (2023). [thesis]

Sophie Libkind and David Jaz Myers. Towards a double operadic theory of systems. Preprint (2025). [paper]
Sophie Libkind. An Algebra of Resource Sharing Machines. Preprint (2020). [paper]

Ontological Commitments for Boundaries - [post]
When you light up, I light up: A dynamical monoidal category of Hebbian learners. with David Spivak - [post]
Composing Open Dynamical Systems. with James Fairbanks - [post 1] and [post 2]
Graphical regular logic. with David Jaz Myers - [post]

Probabilistic and namespace conditioning in polynomial functors. Topos Institute Berkeley Seminar (2024) - [video]
Computation in continuous dynamics. Topos Institute Berkeley Seminar (2023) - [video]
Additive invariants of open Petri nets. 6th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2023) - [video]
Typed and stratified models with slice categories. 5th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2022) - [video]
Happy Birthday AlgebraicDynamics! Topos Institute Berkeley Seminar (2022) - [video]
Operadic modeling of dynamical systems: Mathematics and computation. 4th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (2021) - [video][slides]
AlgebraicDynamics: Compositional dynamical systems. JuliaCon (2021) - [video]
A syntax and semantics for composing dynamical systems. Stanford Kiddie (2021) - [video]
Implementing open dynamical systems in Catlab. UNAM Categories Seminar (2020) - [video]
Unifying open dynamical systems: An algebra of resource sharing machines MIT Category Theory Seminar. (2020) - [video]
No, It's Not an Elective! 17 Years of Teaching Computer Science as a Required Class. The 2016 Global Forum on Girls’ Education (2016)

AlgebraicDynamics, a Julia package for composing open dynamical systems - [GitHub]

Email me at < first name>`at`topos.institute