Computer Security Expert Michael Reiter Joins UNC’s Department of Computer Science

Dr. Michael Reiter, a leading researcher in computer security, joins the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this summer as the Lawrence M. Slifkin Professor of Computer Science. Reiter is the first College of Arts and Sciences faculty member to be recruited under the special initiative led by UNC President Erskine Bowles to attract new world-class scholars to the UNC system.

In his new role, Reiter will be tasked with helping to build a major new program in computer security at the university. His new laboratory will be located on the top floor of the Sitterson Hall addition, scheduled for completion in summer 2008.

“The vulnerability of our computing and communications infrastructures to sophisticated attacks is a multi-faceted problem of increasing importance,” Reiter said. “It is to the credit of the department of computer science and UNC that they recognize this challenge and are supporting and fostering research to address it.”

Reiter comes to UNC from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science, as well as Technical Director of CyLab, the CMU center that deals with computer security and trustworthy computing. Prior to joining CMU, he was director of Secure Systems Research at Bell Laboratories at Lucent Technologies. A UNC alumnus and Morehead Scholar, Reiter graduated first in his class in 1989 with a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and went on to receive his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Reiter is widely respected, having served as program chair for flagship computer security conferences. He is editor-in-chief of the ACM Transactions on Information and Computer Security, and has served on numerous other editorial boards in the field of computer security.

“The importance of computer security in science and society has been growing rapidly as the world’s research, financial and archival capabilities now depend so heavily on computers,” said Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science Jan Prins. “We are delighted therefore to bring Dr. Reiter home to Carolina to develop our research in this area.”