Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham

Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham joined The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) in October 2004 as a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Cyber Security Research Center in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science She is an elected Fellow of three professional organizations: the IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and the BCS (British Computer Society) for her work in data security. She received the IEEE Computer Society’s prestigious 1997 Technical Achievement Award for “outstanding and innovative contributions to secure data management.” She was quoted by Silicon India Magazine as one of the top seven technology innovators of South Asian Origin in the USA in 2002.

Prior to joining UTD, Dr. Thuraisingham was an IPA (Intergovernmental Personnel Act) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington VA, from the MITRE Corporation. At NSF she established the Data and Applications Security Program and co-founded the Cyber Trust theme and was involved in inter-agency activities in data mining for counter-terrorism. She worked at MITRE in Bedford, MA between January 1989 and September 2001 first in the Information Security Center and was later a department head in Data and Information Management as well as Chief Scientist in Data Management in the Intelligence and Air Force centers. She has served as an expert consultant in information security and data management to the Department of Defense, the Department of Treasury and the Intelligence Community for over 10 years. Thuraisingham’s industry experience includes six years of research and development at Control Data Corp. and Honeywell Inc. in Mpls, MN. While she was in Industry and MITRE, she was an adjunct professor of computer science and member of the graduate faculty first at the University of Minnesota and later at Boston University between 1984 and 2001. She also worked as visiting professor soon after her PhD first at the New Mexico Institute of Technology and later at the University of Minnesota between 1980 and 1983.

Dr. Thuraisingham’s work in information security and information management has resulted in over 90 journal articles, over 200 refereed conference papers and workshops, and three US patents. She is the author of nine books in data management, data mining and data security including one on data mining for counter-terrorism and another on Database and Applications Security and is completing her tenth book on SEcure Service Oriented Information Systems. She has given over 70 keynote presentations at various technical conferences and has also given invited talks at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and at the United Nations on Data Mining for counter-terrorism. She serves (or has served) on editorial boards of leading research and industry journals including several IEEE and ACM Transactions and served as the Editor in Chief of Computer Standards and Interfaces Journal. She is also an Instructor at AFCEA’s (Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association) Professional Development Center since 1998 and has served on panels for the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and the National Academy of Sciences.

During her nearly five years at UTD, Dr. Thuraisingham has established and lead a strong research program in Intelligence and Security Informatics which now includes 4 core professors and the team has generated over $9m in research funding from agencies such as NSF, AFOSR, IARPA, NGA, NASA and ONR as well as corporations such as Raytheon Inc. The research projects include an NSF Career Grant, an AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award and a DoD MURI Award. Her current focus includes two activities: (i) studying how terrorists and hackers function so that effective and improved solutions can be provided and (ii) transferring the technologies developed at the university to commercial development efforts.

Dr. Thuraisingham promotes Math and Science to high school students as well as to women and underrepresented minorities and has given featured addresses at conferences sponsored by WITI and SWE. Articles on her efforts as well as her vision have appeared in multiple magazines including the Dallas Morning News, The D Magazine, The MITRE Matters and the DFW Metropolis Technology Magazine. She has also appeared in DFW Television speaking on cyber security related topics.

Dr. Thuraisingham was educated in the United Kingdom both at the University of Bristol and at the University of Wales.