News & Media

Selected coverage, awards, and milestones (2018–2025).

• 2026 — Named a University Eminent Scholar, ODU's highest faculty distinction.
• 2024 — Won the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Impact Award (for 2023), recognizing breakthrough cybersecurity research and workforce impact.
• 2024 — Appointed to the TowneBank Corporate Board of Directors (March 2024), contributing cybersecurity, data-privacy, and risk-management expertise.
• 2024 — Received $2M in federal funding to establish a Cybersecurity Center for Offshore Wind Energy (U.S. Department of Energy + DoD SERC), as Principal Investigator.
• 2023 — PI on a $1M U.S. Small Business Administration grant to help Virginia small businesses guard against cyberattacks.
• 2023 — Leading ODU's effort to address maritime cybersecurity needs (Maritime CMMC).
• 2022 — VMASC PI on a $1.15M U.S. Department of Education grant (GROW M&S) for graduate research.
• 2022 — Awarded a $100K Virginia Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant to commercialize self-sovereign identity for rural-healthcare cybersecurity, with Lockheed Martin.
• 2021 — Technical lead on a $13M Department of Defense contract for resilient 5G smart-warehouse networks.
• 2021 — PI on several projects in a nearly $1M Coastal Virginia CCI cybersecurity award (also covered by WAVY and Virginia Business).
• 2021 — His CRISM cyber-risk-scoring tool (DHS Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute) won the Homeland Security Startup Studio, commercialized via the Charisma Cyber team.
• 2021 — Helped guide the Port of Virginia's new cybersecurity lab.
• 2021 — Studying cybersecurity's role in curbing the spread of misinformation.
• 2020 — Co-created a drone-detecting device with a student, with military testing enabled through his Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane role.
• 2020 — Featured Q&A: "Guarding Your Health Data From Attack."
• 2020 — ODU–Sentara Healthcare partnership (Bloxure device-identity platform) shows promise.
• 2019 — ODU team won the EPRI Cybersecurity Research Challenge (Data-Driven Attack Graphs).
• 2018 — Using blockchain to enhance health-care security — three-year ODU–Sentara project launched.
• 2018 — Co-leading a CREDC project (with U. of Illinois) using blockchain to protect the power-grid supply chain.