Elisa Bertino is the Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University, where she also directs the Purdue Cyberspace Security Lab (Cyber2Slab) and serves as Research Director at CERIAS. Since joining Purdue in January 2004, her work has integrated rigorous theory with practical solutions across information security, database systems, and emerging cyber-physical domains. Education Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Pisa (1980) Research Interests Professor Bertino’s research portfolio is exceptionally broad, spanning information security and assurance , database and data mining technologies , and AI-driven cybersecurity . She pursues foundational advances in access-control models (RBAC, ABAC, trust negotiation), secure data publishing and broadcast protocols for XML and streaming data, privacy-preserving analytics through differential privacy and secure multi-party computation, and zero-trust architectures for 5G/6G and software-defined networks. Application domains include secure mobile and IoT ecosystems, medical informatics, and humanities data. Recent Publication Trends Her 2024–2025 publications reveal a strategic pivot toward next-generation network security (5G/6G, SDN/NFV), trustworthy AI (federated learning, transformer-based malware analysis), and privacy technologies (differential privacy, homomorphic encryption). A recurring theme is the rigorous integration of AI techniques with cryptographic and systems-level defenses to achieve scalable, privacy-preserving security solutions. Scientific Awards & Honors IEEE Fellow ACM Fellow IEEE Computer Society Technical Achievement Award (2002) IEEE Tsutomu Kanai Award (2005) ACM Athena Lecturer Award (2019) Kristian Beckman Award (2020) IEEE 2021 Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award Advising & Grants Professor Bertino has mentored a large cohort of doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers. Recent externally funded projects include NSF “Privacy-Enhanced Secure Data Provenance” (2011-2016), NIST “Advancing Commercial Participation in the NSTIC Ecosystem” (2012-2013), and Sypris Electronics “Security Techniques for Smart Mobile Devices” (2012). Laboratories & Teams She leads the Cyber2Slab (Cyber Space Security Lab), a vibrant research group investigating insider-threat mitigation, IoT and drone security, digital identity management, cloud data protection, and AI-assisted defense mechanisms. The lab collaborates extensively with federal agencies, industry partners, and international research consortia such as the Data Analytics and Information Science International Technology Alliance (DAIS ITA).





