Professor Robert Deng of the School of Information Systems (SIS) has been awarded the prestigious AXA Chair Professorship of Cybersecurity for a period of eight years. Professor Deng is the first named Chair professorship for SIS and one of only six AXA Chairs to be conferred this honour worldwide this year.

As AXA Chair Professor of Cybersecurity, Professor Deng will undertake a research programme to systematically investigate a unified framework for protecting data. The research is expected to yield new security models, algorithms, protocols, and analysis techniques which will provide new ways of protecting data security and privacy.

While this chair professorship is housed in SIS, Professor Deng’s work will be interdisciplinary through the integration of his cybersecurity research with several of SMU’s larger scale projects in the Analytics for Business, Consumer and Social Insights Area of Excellence cutting across the technology, management and social science areas at SMU. Many of the centres at SMU will provide ample opportunities for Professor Deng and his team to collaborate as well as test and demonstrate the new cybersecurity methods they will develop.

The conferment serves as further recognition and affirmation of research excellence at SMU. It strengthens our efforts to attract and retain thought leaders and outstanding professors who deliver exceptional teaching experiences as well as create and share new knowledge through their cutting-edge research. These scholars will provide impetus and strong support to our ambition of becoming a premier university in Asia.