Luiz DaSilva, executive director of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) and professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been named Bradley Professor in Cybersecurity by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.

The Bradley Professor in Cybersecurity recognizes faculty excellence. Recipients hold the professorship for five years, and it is renewable.

DaSilva was named the inaugural director of CCI last year and leads a network of higher education and industry experts to build an ecosystem of cyber-related research, education, and engagement that will position Virginia as a world leader in cybersecurity and cyber-physical systems. DaSilva has spent more than 20 years in academia, including 17 years as a professor at Virginia Tech, where he established an international reputation for leadership and innovation in wireless communications and networks research.

A prolific scholar, DaSilva has co-authored two books and authored or co-authored 13 book chapters, 92 journal or magazine articles, and 152 conference or workshop papers. Among his journal articles, 74 were published in prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) transactions or magazines. He has given more than 60 invited talks, lectures, seminars, or keynotes around the world as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

DaSilva is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to cognitive networking and to resource management in wireless networks. He pioneered the application of game theory to analyze and design wireless networks and is also responsible for seminal work on cognitive networking and spectrum and network sharing.

DaSilva has served as principal investigator on 39 research projects funded by U.S., Irish, European, and other international funding agencies and from industry partners. In 2018, he was named director of the CONNECT Communications and Networks research center, a consortium of 250 researchers across Ireland.

DaSilva has a strong record of advising and mentoring of graduate students. Over his academic career, he has advised 11 master’s degree thesis students to completion and 19 Ph.D. students, and he has also been an external examiner or opponent for 13 Ph.D. defenses in Europe, Singapore, and India.

DaSilva has served on the IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks (TCC) Awards Committee in 2017. Since 2009, he has been a member of the Editorial Board for Computer Networks; since 2011, he has been an associate editor for the Journal of Communication and Information Systems; and since 2016, he has been the associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. He has previously been the associate editor on two other IEEE journals and a guest editor for four special issues in various publication venues.

In addition, DaSilva has chaired or co-chaired 10 international conferences, served on 12 National Science Foundation review panels, and reviewed proposals for at least 15 other organizations in various countries around the globe. Recently, he chaired the Technical Program Committee for ICC 2020, the flagship conference of the IEEE Communications Society.

When he was at Virginia Tech, he was recognized as a Virginia Tech College of Engineering Faculty Fellow in 2006. He received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.

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