Talwar co-founded AutoPD following a distinguished career in mathematics research and teaching at the Université Pierre Marie-Curie in Paris, the University of York, and from 1996 to 1998, with ELSE (the ESRC Center for Game Theory) at UCL.
The algebraic decomposition of finite state machines has been a constant research theme, latterly focused on computer and VLSI implementation. In Paris, he gave a 4-page proof of a major result in the field (previous proofs were of the order of 100 pages). At York, he developed an algorithm on the decideability of complexity of automata – resolving a 30 year old problem (published in Advances in Applied Mathematics). At ELSE he worked on the complexity of games.
