Berkeley Lab’s Sean Peisert named editor-in-chief of IEEE Security and Privacy

Sean Peisert, who leads the computer security research and development team in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Computational Research Division, has been named the new editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal, IEEE Security and Privacy. Peisert, who is currently an associate editor-in-chief, will begin his new, three-year appointment on January 1, 2021.

IEEE Security and Privacy is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society’s peer-reviewed journal on computer security, publishing research, case studies, tutorials and reviews on the security and dependability of computer-based systems. Its goal is to disseminate work with both a practical and research emphasis from top scholars in academia, industry and government. 

“I am extremely humbled by the appointment to this position, amidst a group of the finest computer scientists and security and privacy professionals in the world,” said Peisert. “I am also extremely grateful to current Editor-in-Chief Nicol, and all past and present Editorial Board members who have made this publication what it is. IEEE Security & Privacy has a 20-year history of excellence that can, should, and will continue forth into the next vicennial, with our hard work.  It is both a daunting challenge and also a joy to assume this new role.”

Peisert’s research focuses on keeping a variety of computing systems safe and secure by using scientific data analysis to develop systems that identify misuse and cyberattacks. Throughout his career, he has worked to improve safety for high-performance computing systems, cloud computing, distributed systems, and power grid control systems.

In addition to his work at Berkeley Lab, Peisert also serves as chief cybersecurity strategist for CENIC, where he’s responsible for enterprise cybersecurity strategy and implementation and the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity network designed to meet the unique requirements of CENIC's constituent population of over 10,000 institutions and 20 million users.

He is also an associate adjunct professor at UC Davis, in both the Department of Computer Science and in the Division of Health Informatics at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. A product of the UC system, he received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from UC San Diego, all in computer science.