Kirk Sayre is an expert in the function-theoretic mathematical foundations that are the basis for function extraction technology. He is currently working on development of the core rewriting engine for the FX system, as well as on formal testing for the system.

Prior to joining CERT, Sayre was a research professor at the University of Tennessee, where he developed an automated testing framework for the certification of generic scientific computing libraries. In his position at UT, Sayre also developed a CASE tool to support the editing and creation of rigorous sequence-based software specifications. This tool is currently being used on software projects at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Bosch. Sayre has developed software in many different areas, including educational web applications, automated testing tools, CASE tools, medical devices, and weapons systems.