William L. Scherlis

William L. Scherlis is a Professor in the Software and Societal Systems Department of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as a special advisor to the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), a DoD FFRDC at CMU. Previously, he directed DARPA's Information Innovation Office (I2O) from 2019-2022 and led CMU's Software and Societal Systems Department for 12 years.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Stanford University
• John Knox Memorial Fellowship, University of Edinburgh
• A.B. in Applied Mathematics, Harvard University

His research centers on software assurance, cybersecurity, and assured safe concurrency, with emphasis on formal methods for security, language-based security, and software verification. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in software security, privacy, and IoT systems.

Awards and Honors:

• DARPA Superior Public Service Medal
• Senior Executive Service Performance Award
• Life Fellow of the IEEE
• Lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences

Scherlis founded CMU's PhD program in Software Engineering in 1999 and led it for a decade. He directed major initiatives including NASA's High Dependability Computing Program and CMU's NSA Science of Security Lablet, while advising tech firms and co-founding Panopto, a CMU spin-off.

He led the Software and Societal Systems Department (S3D), which conducts research in software development, security, privacy, social networks, and IoT, and served as acting CTO for the Software Engineering Institute during 2012-2013.