Eugene H. Spafford is one of the most senior cyber security researchers in the field. He has made major, seminal contributions to cyber security in his 40-year career, including 31 years at Purdue. His research in topics such including firewalls, intrusion detection, and forensics underlies most of our current cyber technologies. His innovation and efforts in cyber security education led to international initiatives, a network of centers of excellence, and Purdue CERIAS’s leading position in the field. And his continuing advising and advocacy – from community groups to professional associations to industry boards and C-level managers and government officials, including Congress and Presidents of the USA – has helped to keep attention focused on issues of security, safety, and privacy.

Professor Spafford is a Fellow of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, (ISC)², a Distinguished Fellow of the ISSA, and a member of the Cyber Security Hall of Fame -- the only person to ever hold all these distinctions. In 2012 he was named as one of Purdue's inaugural Morrill Professors—the university's highest award for faculty, recognizing outstanding accomplishment in the combination of scholarship, teaching, and service. In 2016, he received the State of Indiana's highest civilian honor by being named as a Sagamore of the Wabash. Among many other activities he a member of the Council of ACM, and is editor-in-chief of the journal Computers & Security.