Dr Sushmita Ruj

Faculty of Engineering Lead, IfCyber

I am the  Faculty of Engineering Lead, UNSW Institute for Cybersecurity, IFCYBER and Senior Lecturer (equivalent to US Associate Professor)  in the School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), UNSW, Sydney. I am also the Taste of Research (ToR) Coordinator within CSE. This is a unique program which aims to introduce undergraduate students to research, steer them towards innovation and creative thinking and possibly pursue a higher degree or career in research. 

My primary research interests are in applied cryptography, post-quantum cryptography, cybersecurity, blockchains and data privacy. I design practical, efficient and provably secure protocols that can be deployed in real-life applications. My interests are in critical infrastructure including smart grids and cloud, ad hoc networks and data sharing frameworks. As the world builds stronger capability in quantum technology, I am trying to design quantum safe algorithms to transition to a safer Internet. Recently, I have also been interested in ethical aspects of cybersecurity and legal and regulatory aspects around data sharing. 

My aim is to carry out impactful research for the benefit of the society and mentor students to be critical thinkers and leaders.   I love to work with my students and collaborate with the government, academia and industry. This has made research a very enriching experience for me. I have collaborated with researchers across five continents and have delivered over 100 technical lectures around the world. I have won several competitive grants like Samsung GRO Award, NetApp Faculty Fellowship, Cisco Academic Grant and IBM Research grant. I am a senior member of ACM and IEEE. 

I am on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), Elsevier Journal Pervasive and Mobile Computing (PMC). I have served as an Associate Editor of Elsevier Journal of Information Security and Applications (JISA). Program Co- Chairs for ACISP 2021 and Indocrypt 2020. Besides, I have served on the program committees of many conferences like ACM ASIACCS, ACNS, ICDCS, Indocrypt, IEEE ICBC, IEEE Globecom, IEEE ICC to name a few. I served as a member of the working group on “Blockchain For Cybersecurity” working group of the National Blockchain Roadmap of Australia and the first Blockchain Working group set up by the Reserve bank of India. I was a member of Trans-Tasman Initiative on Post Quantum Cryptography research.

Prior to joining UNSW, I was a Senior Research Scientist in CSIRO's Data61 (2019-2022) where amongst other project I led a project on Data Sharing which was a Merit Winner at NSW Innovation Award (iAward). Previously, I was an Associate Professor at  Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and an Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indore. I have worked as a Security Researcher at University of Ottawa, Canada and Lund University, Sweden (as a Erasmus Mundas Post Doctoral Fellow). 

I completed a Ph. D. and Master's Degree in Computer Science from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. My Ph. D. thesis was about Cryptographic Key Management. My Master's thesis was about Graph Ramsey Theory and got me an Erdos Number of 2.  I was an undergradate student in Computer Science in Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (Erstwhile B.E. College, Shibpur), the second oldest Engineering College in India. 

I was born in Durgapur, a beautiful, quiet Indian city known for its Steel Plant. I went to Carmel School, Steel Township and DAV Model School.

Link to my researcher profile: https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/sushmita-ruj