Deian Stefan

Deian Stefan is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His research focuses on secure systems, spanning security, programming languages, and systems. Notably, he works on WebAssembly, JavaScript JITs, and language-based security (e.g., constant-time programming, memory safety, information flow control).

• Education: PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University (2015), M.Eng and B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Cooper Union (2011)

His research trend emphasizes secure compilation, transient execution attacks, and hardware-software co-design for security. Key themes include SFI (Software Fault Isolation), constant-time cryptography, and WebAssembly hardening.

Scientific Awards
• Distinguished paper awards at POPL 2023, IEEE MICRO Top Picks 2024
• IEEE Cybersecurity Award for Practice 2022
• CSA^W first place (2020), DJB Prize (2010)

He teaches graduate courses like CSE 227: Graduate Computer Security and CSE 291: Building Secure Systems, covering topics from supply chain attacks to hardware defenses. He co-founded web-security startup Intrinsic (acquired by VMWare).