Brown professor advises U.S. on cybersecurity

PROVIDENCE – A Brown University computer science professor has been selected to spend the current academic year in Washington advising the U.S. State Department on cybersecurity and other science and technology issues.

John E. Savage, a professor who helped found Brown’s Department of Computer Science, was named one of this year’s seven Jefferson Science Fellows. The six-year-old program brings tenured American academic scientists and engineers to the nation’s capital to advise either the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Savage is both the first computer scientist and the first Brown professor chosen as a Jefferson Fellow. He will be paid $50,000 to cover living expenses and receive $10,000 for travel costs.

As a Jefferson Fellow, Savage will advise the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research on ways of protecting software and operating systems from hackers and other cyber threats. •