Rate My Professor David Wheeler

David Wheeler is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University, where he teaches graduate courses in developing secure software. His academic background includes a PhD in Information Technology from George Mason University awarded in 2009 (granted 2010), an MS in Computer Science from the same university in 1993 (granted 1994), a BS in Electronics Engineering in 1987 (granted 1988), a Certificate for Information System Security in 2000, and a Certificate for Software Engineering in 1993, all from George Mason University. He also completed a summer session on Design and Analysis of Distributed Protocols at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.

Wheeler's professional career emphasizes computer security, with specializations in developing secure software, free/libre and open source software, improving software development practices, and open standards. He began his career at the Institute for Defense Analyses in 1987 as a consultant, advancing to research staff member, with full-time employment ending in 2020. Currently, he serves as Director of Open Source Supply Chain Security at the Linux Foundation. Among his major publications are the books Secure Programming HOWTO, Ada 95: The Lovelace Tutorial published by Springer-Verlag, Software Inspection: An Industry Best Practice by the IEEE Computer Society Press, and Metamath: A Computer Language for Mathematical Proofs in 2019. Key papers and reports include Countering Trusting Trust through Diverse Double-Compiling presented at the Twenty-First Annual Computer Security Applications Conference and serving as his PhD dissertation, A Sample Security Assurance Case Pattern (IDA P-9278, 2018), State-of-the-Art Resources for Software Vulnerability Detection, Test, and Evaluation (IDA P-8005, 2016), and Open Source Software Projects Needing Security Investments (IDA D-5459, 2015). Wheeler received the Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award from the George Mason University Department of Computer Science in 2012. He holds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).