Assistant Professor Prashanth Rajivan

The University of Washington's College of Engineering has recognized Industrial & Systems Engineering Assistant Professor Prashanth Rajivan with the esteemed Junior Faculty Award at this year's College of Engineering Awards Ceremony. This accolade celebrates Professor Rajivan's unwavering commitment to ISE and UW, showcasing his remarkable efforts in both research and education.

The award and its significance

The Junior Faculty Award is bestowed on those who embody excellence through their exceptional scholarship, profound contributions and commitment, innovation in research and education, and enhancement of participation of under-represented groups. Professor Rajivan's impactful work aligns perfectly with these criteria, as he continues to make strides in his field, notably in cybersecurity and its interplay with cognitive science and simulation modeling.

Safeguarding our digital world

Professor Rajivan, whose research spans the fields of cyber security, human factors, and cognitive modeling, has substantial contributions to our comprehension of human decision-making in adversarial environments through his Behavioral Research in Information and Computer Security (BRICS) Laboratory. His studies on phishing attacks, for instance, have led to new approaches to addressing the complex challenge of helping people distinguish targeted phishing emails from genuine messages, and his work on cybersecurity defense has illuminated challenges surrounding teaming and decision-making in cybersecurity defense operations. His influence is also evident through the successes of his students. A current Ph.D. student of Rajivan’s, Monika Blue Kwapisz, was recently awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program to pursue research at the intersection of privacy and online learning systems, and his former student, Dr. Daniel Xu, was awarded the Alphonse Chapanis Best Student Paper at the 2021 Human Factors and Ergonomic Society’s (HFES) Conference.

Professor Rajivan expresses his gratitude on receiving this accolade, "I am very honored and humbled to receive this recognition from the college. I thank everyone who nominated me for this award and my colleagues who have contributed so much support and encouragement as a junior faculty in the department! This recognition motivates me to contribute further to the growth of the department."

This award underlines the extraordinary work that Professor Rajivan has undertaken, and brings to the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering. We congratulate Professor Prashanth Rajivan on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to his continued contributions to the department and to our field.