ACM Technology Policy Council Member Bios
Virgilio Almeida
At-Large Member
Virgilio Almeida is an emeritus professor of Computer Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He is also Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Virgilio received his PhD degree in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, a Master's degree in computer science at PUC-Rio and a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from UFMG. He held visiting positions in several universities and research labs, such as Harvard University (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), New York University, Boston University, Santa Fe Institute and HP Research Labs.
His current research interests include areas such as: social computing, ethical issues of algorithms, digital governance, modeling and analysis of large scale distributed systems. Professor Virgílio is the author of five books on capacity planning and performance modeling, published by Prentice Hall in English, with editions in Portuguese, Korean and Russian. Virgílio has published more than 170 articles in international and national journals and conferences and seven chapters of international books.
Virgilio was the National Secretary for Information Technology Policies of the Brazilian government from 2011 to 2015. He was the chair of the Brazilian Internet Steering He was also the chair of NETmundial, the Global Multi-stakeholder Conference on the Future of Internet Governance, that was held in Sao Paulo in 2014. Virgilio is currently one of the commissioners of the Global Commission for the Stability of Cyberspace. Virgilio is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).
Expertise: social computing, ethical issues of algorithms, digital governance, modeling and analysis of large scale distributed systems
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon
Vice Chair / SIG Representative
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon is Professor of Computer Science, Classe Exceptionnelle, at Université Paris-Sud and a senior fellow of Institut Universitaire de France. He has worked in human-computer interaction for over 30 years and is a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy. His research interests include fundamental aspects of interaction, novel interaction techniques, computer-supported cooperative work and engineering of interactive systems. He has published over 180 papers and is an ACM Distinguished Speaker. He heads the 22M€ Digiscope project and is the laureate of an ERC Advanced Grant. Michel was director of LRI, the laboratory for computer science joint between Université Paris-Sud and CNRS, and now heads the Human-Centered Computing lab at LRI. He is also chair of the department of Computer Science at Université Paris-Saclay (2400 faculty, staff and Ph.D. students). He founded AFIHM, the Francophone association for human-computer interaction and has been active in ACM and SIGCHI for over 20 years, including the editorial boards of ACM Books and ACM TOCHI, the ACM Council, ACM Publications Board, ACM Europe Council and Europe TPC. He served as Technical Program Co-chair for CHI 2013 in Paris (3500 participants) and received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award in 2015.
Expertise: Human-Computer Interaction
Vinton G. Cerf
At-Large Member
Vinton G. Cerf co-designed the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet and is Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is a former member of the National Science Board and current member of the National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAS, and BCS. Cerf received the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Prince of Asturias Award, Japan Prize, ACM Turing Award, Legion d’Honneur, the Franklin Medal, the Catalunya International Prize and 29 honorary degrees.
Expertise: Network Protocols, Security, Technology Policy, digital preservation
Chris Hankin
Europe TPC Committee Chair
Professor Hankin joined Imperial College London in 1984 and was promoted to Professor of Computer Science in 1995. He was Director and then Co-Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology from 2010 until 2019. His research is in cyber security, data analytics and theoretical computer science. He leads multidisciplinary projects focused on providing better decision support to defend against cyber attacks for both enterprise systems and industrial control systems.
He is Director of the UK Research Institute on Trustworthy Inter-connected Cyber-physical Systems (RITICS) which focuses on cyber security of critical infrastructure. He is founder and immediate past chair of the UK’s Academic Resilience and Security Community (Academic RiSC). He is the immediate past chair of the ACM Europe Council. He is also a member of the ACM Publications Board and co-chairs the Assessment and Search Committee of the Board.
He was Chair of the Scientific Council of INRIA from 2010 to 2015. He has served on various advisory committees for the European Commission, culminating in acting as Vice Chair of the CONNECT Advisory Forum for DG CONNECT from 2012-2014.
Expertise: Theoretical Computer Science; Program Analysis; Cyber Security; Privacy, AI, Trustworthiness, Resilience
James Hendler
Chair
James Hendler is the Director of the Institute for Data Exploration and Applications and the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web and Cognitive Sciences at RPI. He also heads the RPI-IBM Center for Health Empowerment by Analytics, Learning and Semantics (HEALS) and serves as a Chair of the Board of the UK’s charitable Web Science Trust. Hendler has authored over 400 books, technical papers and articles in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high-performance processing. One of the originators of the “Semantic Web,” Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a former member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the AAAI, BCS, the IEEE, the AAAS and the ACM. He is also the former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was awarded a US Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 2002. He is also the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing editors for Science. In 2010, Hendler was named one of the 20 most innovative professors in America by Playboy magazine and was selected as an “Internet Web Expert” by the US government. In 2013, he was appointed as the Open Data Advisor to New York State and in 2015 appointed a member of the US Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee. In 2016, became a member of the National Academies Board on Research Data and Information and in 2018 was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He served as chair of the ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee from 2018-2021.
Expertise: artificial intelligence, robotics, and semantic web
Paola Inverardi
At-Large Member
Paola Inverardi was born in L’Aquila, Italy on November 3rd 1957. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Pisa on February 1981. Soon after, she started working at the Olivetti DIDAU research centre in Pisa where she was part of the research team involved in the first Italian national project on Computer Science. In 1984 she became a researcher at the Istituto di Elaborazione dell’Informazione. In 1994, she became full professor in Computer Science at the University of L’Aquila, coordinating its Laurea Program in Computer Science from 1994 to 2000. When the University’s Department of Computer Science was established in 2001 Inverardi became its first Director, holding that position until 2007. At present, the Computer Science Department is comprised of 24 faculty members. Its main research groups include Software Engineering and Architecture, led by Inverardi. From 2001 to December 2007, Paola also was a member of the Senate Board of the University of L’Aquila and from, 2006 to 2007, she was President of the Board of the Directors of the Departments of University of L’Aquila. From November 2008 – December 2012, she also served as Dean of the Faculty of Science and a member of the Senate Board. Since the devastating earthquake that destroyed the city of L’Aquila on April 6, 2009, Inverardi has been part of the emergency commission set up by the Academic Senate to address the initial emergency and resulting challenges. She is also the co-founder of Beep Innovation, a spin-off company of the University of L’Aquila. It was created in 2006 with the approval and financial backing of the Italian Ministry of Research. In addition to serving on ACM’s Technology Policy Council, Paola is member of the ACM Europe Council (http://europe.acm.org/), Vice Chair of the ACM Europe Technology Policy Committee (https://www.acm.org/public-policy/europe-tpc), and a member of Academia Europaea (http://www.acadeuro.org/).
Expertise: Pending
Lorraine Kisselburgh
Past Chair
Lorraine Kisselburgh is a fellow in the Center for Education and Research in Information Security (CERIAS), lecturer in the Center for Entrepreneurship, and former professor of media, technology, and society at Purdue University. Her research focuses on the social implications of emerging technologies, including privacy, ethics, collaboration; social interaction in the intersections of technological and cultural contexts; and gender and leadership in STEM careers. She has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security, and with colleagues developed a framework to enhance ethical reasoning skills of science and engineering researchers that was recognized by the National Academy of Engineering. In 2018 she was the Scholar-in-Residence at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, D.C., coordinating the development of the University Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence, a framework grounded in human rights protection.
She served on ACM’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) from 2006-2019, on the ACM Task Force on Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct from 2017-2018, and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. She has chaired and served numerous steering committees for strategic planning, technology, and data analysis. At Purdue she was recognized as the inaugural Faculty Scholar in the Butler Center for Leadership, a Service Learning Faculty Fellow, Diversity Faculty Fellow, and recipient of the Violet Haas Award in recognition of her efforts on behalf of women.
Expertise: privacy, ethics, accessibility, internet and social media, human-computer interaction
Jeanna Neefe Matthews
SIG Representative
Jeanna Matthews is a professor of computer science at Clarkson University and an affiliate at Data and Society. She has published work in a broad range of systems topics from virtualization and cloud computing to social media security and distributed file systems. She has been a four-time presenter at DEF CON on topics including security vulnerabilities in virtual environments (2015 and 2016), adversarial testing of criminal justice software (2018) and trolling (2018). She is an ACM Distinguished Speaker, a Fulbright Specialist and a founding co-chair of the ACM Technology Policy Subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence and Algorithm Accountability.
She has been a member of the ACM Council (2015-present), chair of the ACM Special Interest Group Governing Board ( 2016-2018) and the the chair of the ACM Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) from 2011 to 2015. Her current work focuses on securing societal decision-making processes and supporting the rights of individuals in a world of automation. She received a 2018-2019 Brown Institute Magic Grant to research differences in DNA software programs used in the criminal justice system. Jeanna received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Ohio State University in 1994 and a B.A. in Spanish from the State University of New York at Potsdam in 2015.
Expertise: virtualization, cloud computing, computer security, computer networks, operating systems, software accountability and transparency
P. J. Narayanan
At-Large Member
P. J. Narayanan is a Professor at IIIT, Hyderabad and its Director from 2013. He joined the institute in 2000 and was its Dean of Research from 2006. He got his bachelors in CSE in 1984 from IIT, Kharagpur and his PhD in Computer Science in 1992 from the University of Maryland, College Park. He worked in the Lipi group of CMC Ltd from 1984 to 1986. He worked on the Virtualized Reality project as a research faculty member at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University from 1992 to 1996. He headed the Computer Vision and Virtual Reality groups at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bangalore from 1996. His research interests include Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Parallel Computing, and Virtual Reality. He was the General Chair of the second Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics, and Image Processing (ICVGIP) in 2000 and the Program Chair of the Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV 2006) and ICVGIP 2010. He was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing. He was a Senior Programme Committee member of IJCAI 2007 and the Area Chair of ICCV, CVPR, ECCV, ACCV, etc. He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was the President of ACM India from 2012 to 2014 and was the its Co-Chair from 2009 till 2012. He was the Chair of the Research Board of ACM India.
Expertise: Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, and Parallel Computing
Stuart Shapiro
TechBriefs Committee Chair
Stuart S. Shapiro is a Principal Cyber Security and Privacy Engineer at the MITRE Corporation, a not-for-profit company performing technical research and consulting primarily for the US government. At MITRE he has supported a wide range of security and privacy activities involving, among others, critical infrastructure protection, policy frameworks, risk and control assessment, and incident response. In particular, he has led multiple research and operational efforts in the areas of privacy engineering, privacy risk management, and privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for government sponsors, including projects focused on connected vehicles and on de-identification. He has also held several academic positions and has taught courses on the history, politics and ethics of information and communication technologies. His professional affiliations include the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), from which he holds CIPP/US and CIPP/G certifications, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and ACM's US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC, formally USACM), of which he is immediate past chair. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Northwestern University, an MSc in Computing from the Open University (UK), and a PhD in Applied History and Social Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University.
Expertise: cyber security and privacy
Barbara Simons
At-Large Member
Simons is internationally known as an expert on voting technology, an advocate for auditable paper-based voting systems, and author of numerous papers on secure election technology. Through her publications, reports, testimony to the US Congress, and advocacy, Simons has been a key player in persuading election officials to shift to paper-based voting systems, and has contributed to proposals for reforms in election technologies, including post-election ballot audits. Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?, the 2012 book Simons co-authored with Douglas Jones, is regarded as the best available analysis of the risks of using computing technology in voting.
Simons served as ACM President from 1998 – 2000. In 2001, she served on President Clinton’s Export Council’s Subcommittee on Encryption and the National Workshop on Internet Voting, which conducted one of the first studies of internet voting.
Since 2008, Simons has served as one of two US Senate appointees to the Board of Advisors of the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC), and she was named Chair of the Board of Advisors subcommittee on election security in 2019. She currently also chairs the Board of Directors of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that advocates for legislation and regulation that promotes accuracy, transparency and verifiability of elections. She remains active with ACM as a member of the global Technology Policy Council and as Co-chair of USTPC's Voting subcommittee.
Expertise: election security
Daniel Weitzner
At-Large Member
Daniel J. Weitzner is Founding Director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative, Principal Research Scientist at CSAIL, and teaches Internet public policy in MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Weitzner’s research pioneered the development of Accountable Systems to enable computational treatment of legal rules. Weitzner was United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy in the White House where he led initiatives on privacy, cybersecurity, copyright, and digital trade policies promoting the free flow of information. He was responsible for the Obama Administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and the OECD Internet Policymaking Principles. He has been a leader in Internet public policy from its inception, making fundamental contributions to the successful fight for strong online free expression protection in the United States Supreme Court, and for laws that control government surveillance of email and web browsing data. Weitzner has a law degree from Buffalo Law School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Swarthmore College. His writings have appeared in Science magazine, the Yale Law Review, Communications of the ACM, the Washington Post, Wired Magazine and Social Research. He is a founder of the Center for Democracy and Technology, led the World Wide Web Consortium’s public policy activities, and was Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, recipient of the International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award (2013), the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (2016), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund.
Expertise: Pending
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