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Gene Tsudik
Gene Tsudik

On November 28, 2023, the ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC) honored Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Gene Tsudik with its annual Outstanding Innovation Award. Presented at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2023) in Copenhagen, the award recognizes his seminal research contributions to security and privacy for the Internet, anonymous and censorship-resistant communication, mobile networking, cloud computing and storage, databases, and the Internet of Things.

Tsudik appears on stage at the conference, with some of his early year CCS papers appearing on a screen behind him.
Gene Tsudik receiving the ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2023) in Copenhagen.

During the award presentation, some of Gene’s earlier research on key distribution and security for grid computing was highlighted. His current research with colleagues and graduate students at UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) includes security and privacy of IoT/smart and embedded devices, privacy-agile cryptography, usable security, and mitigating deep fakes. His reaction to receiving the award is:

“While this award is indeed a big honor, truth be told, it is very much an acknowledgment not of an individual, but of an outstanding set of diverse collaborators/coauthors with whom I had the pleasure and good luck to work over the years.”

Notably, ACM SIGSAC has previously (2017) recognized Gene with its Outstanding Contribution Award, for leadership in security and privacy research.

“Gene is only the second person ever to receive both this ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Innovation Award and the ACM SIGSAC Outstanding Contributions Award,” says Tony Givargis, Chair of the Department of Computer Science. “Please join me in extending our heartfelt congratulations to him for these well-deserved accolades.”

Shani Murray