Professor Avrunin's research has ranged from the cohomology and representation theory of finite groups to utility theory and models of individual choice and social conflict. Most recently, he has been developing methods for determining whether any execution of a concurrent or distributed system can violate a given property or requirement. This work focuses on finite-state verification: techniques that involve construction and analysis of suitable finite models that represent all possible executions of the system under consideration. As part of this work, he also studies problems related to the precise specification of the requirements the system must meet. He is currently involved in projects investigating the application of finite-state verification techniques to high-performance scientific computing applications and to complex medical processes, where formal definition and analysis of the processes can help reduce both medical errors and cost.
He was General Chair of the 2004 ACM International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, is a member of the editorial board of the ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, and has served on many program committees for software engineering conferences. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the Army Research Office. In 2006, he was named an ACM Distinguished Scientist.