Matt Bishop Receives Prestigious Honors for Cybersecurity Research and Teaching
Computer Science Professor Matt Bishop recently received two prestigious honors in recognition of his research and teaching: The Taylor L. Booth Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and election to the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Hall of Fame. Bishop is the first UC Davis faculty member to receive either honor.
“I’m surprised and pleased to receive these honors,” he said. “They speak to my teaching and research, and speak well of both of them.”
Taylor L. Booth Award
The Taylor L. Booth Award is awarded annually to those with an outstanding record in computer science and engineering education. In particular, Bishop was honored for “contributions as an educator, author and technical leader in cybersecurity education.” The award is named in memory of the IEEE Computer Society’s former president-elect, who was instrumental in defining computer science and engineering curricula for program accreditation.
The IEEE Computer Society is the largest global community of computer scientists and engineers and it brings together professionals from all areas of computing and at every phase of career.
ISSA Hall of Fame
Election to the ISSA Hall of Fame is a lifetime achievement award that recognizes exceptional leadership and exemplary commitment to the information security profession. Hall of Fame members have made significant and broad contributions to the profession and display the highest level of professionalism and lifetime achievement. No more than five members are elected to the Hall of Fame each year.
ISSA is a community for international cybersecurity professionals dedicated to advancing growth, managing technology risk and protecting critical information and infrastructure.
A Legacy in Cybersecurity
Bishop is known for his research in vulnerability analysis to make computing systems more secure. His research involves analyzing and modeling these systems to find and eliminate potential security issues. He is perhaps best known for his work in election security, as he has helped election officials in California and across the country vet their electronic voting systems and processes to find and fix security issues since 2003.
He received his bachelor’s in astronomy and applied math and his master’s in math at UC Berkeley, and his second master’s and doctorate in computer science at Purdue University. He worked as a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Institute for Advanced Computer Science and as a faculty member at Dartmouth College before joining UC Davis in 1993.
Since then, Bishop has written two textbooks—Computer Security: Art and Science and Introduction to Computer Security—published more than 250 papers, received the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award and won both the Founder’s Award and the Academia Award from the Colloquium for Information Systems Security. He has also taught the department’s undergraduate cybersecurity course since he joined UC Davis and serves as the faculty advisor to the Cybersecurity Club at UC Davis.