Professor Eerke Boiten

Job: Professor in Cyber Security, Head of School of Computer Science and Informatics

Faculty: Computing, Engineering and Media

School/department: School of Computer Science and Informatics

Research group(s): Cyber Technology Institute

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)116 207 8511

E: eerke.boiten@dmu.ac.uk

W: http://dmu.ac.uk/cti

 

Personal profile

Eerke Boiten spent the first twenty years of his research career, first in the Netherlands and then in the UK, on mathematics and logic based methods to guarantee and verify the correctness of software. He published over 50 peer reviewed papers on formal methods, including program transformation, viewpoint specification, and refinement in process algebra and state-based systems (e.g. Z). On the latter topic, he authored the monographs “Refinement in Z and Object-Z” (Springer 2004, 2015) and "Refinement: Semantics, Languages and Applications" (Springer 2018) with John Derrick , and organised many conferences and workshops including nine editions of the BCS-FACS Refinement Workshop.

His research has since moved mainly towards cyber security and privacy. He set up and led Kent’s interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security from 2012 to 2017. Looking beyond just his own discipline, Eerke developed an interest in the policy sides of data, starting from a perspective of technical realism. He engages in public debate in this area, including on privacy in general, with frequent quotes and contributions in the press and on radio and TV.  In 2017, he moved to De Montfort University to lead the Cyber Technology Institute, which obtained NCSC/EPSRC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research status in 2019 and NCSC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (Gold) status in 2021. He became Head of the School of Computer Science and Informatics in 2019. His current research projects are in privacy impact assessment, anonymisation, refinement, and cyber intelligence sharing.

Research group affiliations

Cyber Technology Institute

Cyber Security Centre

Software Technology Research Laboratory

Publications and outputs

Recent publications:

Keynotes:

Recent press comments:

Books:

  • Refinement, with John Derrick, Springer 2018

  • Refinement in Z and Object-Z, with John Derrick, Springer 2004, 2nd edition 2015

  • Integrated Formal Methods 2004, proceedings, with John Derrick and Graeme Smith, LNCS 2999, Springer

  • Mathematics of Program Construction 2002, proceedings, with Bernhard Möller, LNCS 2386

Research interests/expertise

Formal methods, cyber security, privacy

Areas of teaching

Privacy, data protection, cyber security, formal methods

Qualifications

Ir (Twente)

PhD (Nijmegen)

PGCHE (Kent)

Membership of external committees

 

  • Program committee member for ABZ 2021
  • FM 2021 Paper First chair
  • EPSRC College member, 2016 (grant reviews since 2002); grant reviews for NWO (Dutch Organisation for Scientific Research); H2020 reviews 2019
  • Panel member for Academy of Finland, 2015-2016
  • Program committee Mathematics of Program Construction, 1998-2015, program chair 2002
  • Program chair BCS-FACS Refinement Workshop, 9 editions 2002-2015
  • Steering Committee FOSAD Summer School, 2012-
  • Panel for EAPLS best PhD thesis award, 2010-

Membership of professional associations and societies

  • Member of the BCS
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Forthcoming events

FM 2021, Paper First chair

Current research students

Thomas Reisinger, part-time

Chimobi Okoro

Olabayo Ishola

Adam Wedgbury

Sarah De'Ath (2nd supervisor)

Aisha Abubakar (2nd supervisor)

Kabiru Mohammed (2nd supervisor)

Robert Kemp (2nd supervisor)

Trevor Wood (2nd supervisor)

Adham Albakri, external supervisor, University of Kent

Externally funded research grants information

EPSRC

2019-2022

“Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security”

 

RISCS/HO

2020

Interviewing cybercrime victims

£70K

EPSRC

2017-2020

Economical, Psychological and Societal Impact of Ransomware, lead site, principal investigator (£913K total)

£445K (Kent/DMU)

EU

2015-2019

H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015, “European Training Network for Cyber Security”, lead for Kent (€3.5M total)

€570K (Kent)

EPSRC/GCHQ

2015-2017

“Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security”

£20K

EPSRC

2012-2015

“Cryptoforma 2”, principal investigator

£82K

EPSRC

2009-2012

“Cryptoforma: formal methods and cryptography, the next generation of abstractions”, principal investigator

£73K

EPSRC

2004

“Research Induction and Training Package at IFM 2004”, principal investigator

£8K

EPSRC

2004-2007

“Network: RefineNet”, investigator

£62K

EPSRC

2000-2003

 

“A Constructive Framework for Partial Specification, principal investigator

£63K

EPSRC

1998-2001

 “ODP Viewpoints in a Development Framework”, named researcher & investigator

£127K

Professional esteem indicators

  • Member of the Editorial Board of Formal Aspects of Computing journal, 2010-
  • External reviewer for Nuffield Bioethics report on Biological and Health Data, 2015
  • External examiner, MSc programmes in Computer Science, University of Sheffield, 2007-2012; MSc programmes in Advanced Computer Science and Security, University of Birmingham 2013-2017
  • Reviewer for many journals and conferences

eerke-boiten

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