Biographies
ISPIA Co-Director
Dr. Rei Safavi-Naini
iCORE Chair in Information Security and Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Before joining University of Calgary in 2007, Rei Safavi-Naini was a Professor of Computer Science, and the Director of the Telecommunication and Information Technology Research Institute and the Centre for Information Security at the University of Wollongong in Australia. She has served on the program committee of major conferences in cryptology and information security including Crypto, Eurocrypt and Asiacrypt and has worked on numerous industry collaborative research projects. Currently, she is director of the iCORE Information Security Lab (ICIS). She holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering (coding theory) from University of Waterloo, and her current research interest include information theoretic security, provable security, network security, digital and privacy rights management, and multimedia security.
ISPIA Co-Director
Dr. Hugh Williams
iCORE Chair in Algorithmic Number Theory and Cryptography (ICANTC) and Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Calgary
Dr. Hugh Williams main research interests are in computational number theory, cryptography and the design and development of special-purpose hardware devices. His work in computational number theory extends from analyzing the complexity of number theoretical algorithms to actually implementing and testing such algorithms. He is also interested in developing parallel algorithms for solving certain number theoretic algorithms, particularly regulator and class number computation in real quadratic number fields.
ISPIA Co-Director (Acting)
Dr. Mark Bauer
(Acting co-director for Hugh Williams), Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Calgary
Mark Bauer's main area of research involves the application of tools from number theory and algebraic geometry to cryptology. In particular, he is interested in evaluating the security of cryptographic primitives based on functions fields and ideal class groups, as well as developing viable alternatives to existing cryptosystems. Mark is also interested in the study of Diophantine equations, a field which impacts on a broad variety of other mathematical areas.
Dr. Michael J. Jacobson, Jr.
(Acting co-director for Dr. Mark Bauer), Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Michael Jacobson's main areas of expertise are computational number theory and public-key cryptography. His most important contribution to date is his extensive work on invariant computation in quadratic fields. He recently developed parallel implementations of his novel index-calculus algorithms.
ISPIA Executive Committee
Dr. Philip Fong
Canada Research Chair in Software Security (Tier II) and Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Philip Fong received his Ph.D. from the Simon Fraser University in 2004. His research interests include protection technologies for social computing, access control, and language-based security.
Dr. Greg Hagen
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary
Professor Hagen earned an LL.B. at Dalhousie University and is a graduate of the LL.M. program (law and technology) at the University of Ottawa. After being called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1999, he practiced in the areas of corporate, securities and technology law at two national law firms. Dr. Hagen previously earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of science at the University of Western Ontario. His area of focus is technology law, including intellectual property, privacy and information security law.
Dr. Michael E. Locasto
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Dr. Locasto studies the security of computer systems. More precisely, he tries to understand why it seems difficult to build secure systems and how we can get better at it. He has particular interests in making software defense mechanisms automatic, correct, and efficient. He works on intrusion defense, debugging & software trustworthiness, and innovative approaches to information security education.
Dr. Payman Mohassel
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Dr. Mohassel earned his Ph.D. at University of California, Davis. He is currently an assistant professot at University of Calgary. He works on problems in cryptography, information security and theoretical computer science. Examples of topics he is interested in are secure multiparty computation, foundations of cryptography and data privacy.
ISPIA Steering Committee
Dr. John Aycock
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
John Aycock received his Ph.D. from the University of Victoria in 2001. He teaches about malicious software and its defenses, and has research interests in compilers and system software as they relate to malicious software countermeasures.
Dr. Phillip Fong
Canada Research Chair in Software Security (Tier II) and Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Philip Fong received his Ph.D. from the Simon Fraser University in 2004. His research interests include protection technologies for social computing, access control, and language-based security.
Dr. Greg Hagen
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary
Professor Hagen earned an LL.B. at Dalhousie University and is a graduate of the LL.M. program (law and technology) at the University of Ottawa. After being called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1999, he practiced in the areas of corporate, securities and technology law at two national law firms. Dr. Hagen previously earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of science at the University of Western Ontario. His area of focus is technology law, including intellectual property, privacy and information security law.
Dr. Michael J. Jacobson, Jr.
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Michael Jacobson's main areas of expertise are computational number theory and public-key cryptography. His most important contribution to date is his extensive work on invariant computation in quadratic fields. He recently developed parallel implementations of his novel index-calculus algorithms.
Dr. Payman Mohassel
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Dr. Mohassel earned his Ph.D. at University of California, Davis. He is currently an assistant professot at University of Calgary. He works on problems in cryptography, information security and theoretical computer science. Examples of topics he is interested in are secure multiparty computation, foundations of cryptography and data privacy.
Dr. Renate Scheidler
Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics and Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Renate Scheidler's research interests include number theory and cryptography. Her work focuses on the development and implementation of algorithms for computing invariants of algebraic structures known as global fields as well as exploring these fields for cryptographic applications. She was a founding member of ISPIA's predecessor CISaC and served on its management board from its inception until 2007.
Dr. Wolfgang Tittel
iCORE Industrial Research Chair and Associate Profesor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Institute for Quantum Information Science, University of Calgary
Wolfgang Tittel engaged in ground-breaking experiments in the field of quantum cryptography from the early stages on. The investigations were seminal in bringing quantum communication out of the laboratory and into the real world using a standard telecommunication fibre network, thereby raising both scientific and public awareness and appreciation that quantum technology is not restricted to contrived laboratory settings. His current interests include practical quantum cryptography, quantum relays and quantum memory.
ISPIA Faculty Members
Dr. Ken Barker
Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Calgary
Ken Barker is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Calgary with particular expertise in the area of database management systems. He is Dean of the Faculty of Science. In addition to holding a Ph.D in Computing Science from the University of Alberta (1990) he has nearly 25 years of experience working with industrial computer systems, fifteen years of consulting experience in the design of commercial databases, and a particular interst in system integration and distributed systems. Dr. Barker has published in excess of 225 peer reviewed publications in areas as diverse as distributed systems, software engineering, transaction systems, simulations and security. His current interests are on developing data repository systems that provide privacy protection for data suppliers while allowing collectors to utilize the data within the guidelines explicitly agreed to by the provider at the time it was acquired. The research objectives include developing a privacy preserving database system and privacy preserving data mining strategies.
Dr. Tanya Beran
Associate Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences and Medical Education Research Unit , University of Calgary
Dr. Beran has published many studies on child heath, evaluation, assessment, and measurement. Specific recent projects include research in teaching evaluation; clinical practice analysis; physician feedback; neonatal simulation; identity development and study strategies in clerkship; and workforce and psychological characteristics of international medical graduates.
Dr. Gavin Cameron
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Calgary
Dr. Cameron received his PhD in 1998 from the University of St Andrews. He is an Associate Director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary and a member of the Executive Board of the Canadian Association for Security & Intelligence Studies (CASIS). His research centres on the threat of, and responses to, terrorism..
Dr. Clifton Cunningham
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of Calgary
Clifton Cunningham's research concerns certain aspects of the Langlands Programme as it relates to the interplay between number theory, analysis and algebraic geometry; progress in this area often finds applications in cryptography. Clifton received his PhD under James Arthur in 1997 and worked at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and the Ecole Normale Superieure (Paris) before coming to the University of Calgary in 2000.
Dr. Jörg Denzinger
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Jörg Denzinger's general research interests are in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and Multi-Agent Systems. His recent work relevant to Information Security is investigating the use of techniques for learning (cooperative) behaviour to find possible interactions with a system that lead to unwanted behavior of the targeted system. Such unwanted behavior can crash the system, produce inconsistencies in it, or get information out of it that should not be given out. Naturally, the idea is to use these techniques together with system developers to identify problems before systems are released.
Dr. Maureen Duffy
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Calgary
Dr. Duffy's teaching and research interests include constitutional law, national security law, criminal procedure, international criminal law, international human rights law, children's law, and media and internet law.
Dr. Vassil Dimitrov
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Calgary
Dr. Vassil Dimitrov's main research interests include efficient algorithms and architectures for digital signal processing, information security and image compression applications. He is particularly interested in applying methods from number theory and algebraic geometry aimed at speeding up the performance of very complex real-time digital signal processing and information security systems
Dr. Edna Einsiedel
Professor, Communication and Culture, University of Calgary
My interests are around the study of science, technology and society. My work proceeds from the premise that technology is not merely an artifact, a product of a unique technical rationality. Rather, technology evolves from both technical and social factors.
Dr. Patrick Feng
Assistant Professor, Communication and Culture, University of Calgary
Dr. Marina Gavrilova
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Marina L. Gavrilova received her MSc from Lomonosov Moscow State University and her Ph.D from the University of Calgary. Her research interests include biometric security, computational geometry, image processing, optimization, and computer modeling. Professor Gavrilova is a founder of two research labs: the Biometric Technologies Laboratory and the SPARCS Laboratory for Spatial Analysis in Computational Sciences. Her publication list includes over ten books and book chapters and 80 research papers. Professor Gavrilova is an Editor-in-Chief for Transactions on Computational Science Journal, Springer-Verlag as well as serves on the Editorial Board for IJCSE Journal and Computer Graphics and CAD/CAM Journal.
Dr. Matthew Greenberg
Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary
Matthew Greenberg received his B.Sc. in 2000 from the University of Manitoba and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from McGill University in 2002 and 2006, respectively. His research interests include theoretical and computational aspects of algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry, with a focus on applications of the theory of modular forms to the construction of rational points on elliptic curves.
Dr. Peter Hoyer
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Peter Hoyer received his PhD from Odense University in Denmark in 2000. He is broadly interested in algorithms and data structures. His current research is on quantum algorithmics, with focus on group-theoretic problems and primitives for reliable quantum computation.
Dr. Thomas Keenan
Professor, Faculty of Environmental Design and and Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Tom Keenan has taught courses and seminars on computer security at The University of Calgary, The Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand) and at the former World Trade Center in New York. He chairs the International Summit on Cybercrime held annually in a major US city, and is one of the few civilian members of the Society for Policing in Cyberspace.
Dr. Richard Mollin
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary
Richard Mollin has over 150 publications in numerous aspects of number theory, algebra and computation, including applications to cryptography. His current research on continued fraction expansions, Diophantine analysis and cryptographic applications is widely viewed as important and groundbreaking. He is considered a world expert on the theory of quadratics.
Dr. Barry Sanders
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary
Barry Sanders is the iCORE Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Calgary. His main research interests are in quantum information science, quantum optics and photonic crystal-based designs of new-generation microwave antennae. Significant recent research achievements include identification of limitations on practical quantum cryptography, theory of optimal remote state preparation, no-go theorems on continuous variable quantum computation, and theory and experimental design for realistic threhold quantum secret sharing.
Dr. Carey Williamson
Department Head and Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary
Carey Williamson received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1991. His research interests include computer networks, wireless networks, Internet protocols, TCP/IP, protocol performance, network simulation, World Wide Web, P2P systems, and network security.
Dr. Svetlana Yanushkevich
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary
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