Databases : semistructured data, XML, data provenance, programming language interfaces, query languages, data models, knowledge bases, database semantics, user interfaces, distributed databases, database monitoring.

Programming Languages : database interfaces, applicative and functional languages, type systems, implementation techniques, semantics.

General : mathematical phylogeny, neural models, cognitive science, data structures, graph theory, combinatorics, applications of computers in the humanities.

Peter Buneman is Professor of Database Systems. His work in computer science has focused mainly on databases and programming languages, specifically: active databases, database semantics, approximate information, query languages, types for databases, data integration, bioinformatics and semistructured data - an area in which he has co-authored a book. He has recently worked on issues associated with scientific databases such as data provenance, archiving and annotation. He has served on numerous programme committees, editorial boards and working groups, and has been programme chair for ACM SIGMOD, ACM PODS and ICDT. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a fellow of the ACM and the recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award.

Before joining the University of Edinburgh, Buneman was a Professor at the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University, his graduate degree from the University of Warwick, and he did postdoctoral work at the University of Edinburgh. He has held visiting positions at the University of Glasgow, Imperial College, Kyoto University and INRIA. In addition to computer science he has made contributions to graph theory and to the mathematics of phylogeny.