Marcus Botacin

Marcus Botacin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University (TAMU), USA. Previously, he held positions as Visiting Assistant Professor (2022-2024) and Lecturer at the Federal University of Paraná (Brazil). His research focuses on malware analysis, hardware-assisted security, and antivirus technology. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from UFPR (2021), M.Sc. from UNICAMP (2017), and B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from UNICAMP (2015).

• Education:
• Ph.D., Computer Science, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil (2021)
• M.Sc., Computer Science, University of Campinas, Brazil (2017)
• B.Sc., Computer Engineering, University of Campinas, Brazil (2015)

Research Interests: Botacin's work addresses challenges in malware detection (static/dynamic methods, sandboxing), hardware-enhanced security mechanisms (e.g., branch monitoring), and antivirus internals. He emphasizes practical solutions and ethical considerations in cybersecurity, advocating for culturally aware threat models (e.g., Brazilian financial malware studies).

Publications & Trends: His recent work explores adversarial ML attacks on malware detectors, HPC-based detection frameworks, and automated malware generation risks. He frequently publishes in top venues like ACM CCS, USENIX Security, and IEEE TDSC.

• Awards:
• Top-3 Best Ph.D. Thesis in Computer Security (Brazilian Computer Society, 2022)
• Best PhD Thesis Award from UFPR (2022)
• MLSec Evasion Challenge 1st place (2021/2020)

Advising & Grants: Supervises 15+ students at TAMU and leads NSF-funded projects (e.g., $523K grant for HPC malware detection frameworks). Serves on 21+ conference program committees and reviews for over 50 journals.

Lab & Projects: Develops Corvus (public malware analysis sandbox) and explores hardware-accelerated AV solutions like Terminator and HEAVEN.