Rate My Professor Vijay Varadharajan

Professor Vijay Varadharajan is an Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle since December 2025. He previously held the Global Innovation Chair Professor position in Cyber Security from March 2017 to December 2025 at the ARC Laureate Fellowship level, served as Chief Cyber Strategist from March 2022, and heads the Advanced Cyber Security Engineering Research Centre. He is also an Affiliate Professor at the Hunter Medical Research Institute, focusing on trustworthy medical technologies and secure online healthcare services. Prior to Newcastle, Varadharajan was the Microsoft Chair Professor in Innovation at Macquarie University from 2001 to 2017 at the ARC Federation Fellowship level, where he founded the Optus MQ Cyber Security Hub and established the Advanced Cyber Security Engineering Research Centre with Microsoft linkages. Earlier appointments include Dean of the School of Computing and IT and Mathematics and Foundation Computing Chair Professor at the University of Western Sydney from 1996 to 2000, Head of Worldwide Security Research at HP Labs in Bristol, UK from 1988 to 1995—leading to six security technologies transferred into HP products generating over $4 billion USD—and Research Manager at British Telecom Research Labs from 1987 to 1988. He began his academic career as Research Fellow and Lecturer in Computer Science at Plymouth and Reading Universities from 1985 to 1986. Varadharajan holds a PhD in Computer and Communication Security from Plymouth and Exeter Universities in 1984, sponsored by BT Research Labs, and a First Class Honours Bachelor's degree in Electronic Engineering from Sussex University in 1981, for which he received the 1981 IEE Prize and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals Award.

Varadharajan's research specializations include cyber and AI security, machine learning security, autonomous systems security, space security, IoT security, 5G and beyond networks, malware analysis, cloud computing security, and cryptographic techniques. He has authored over 500 papers, co-authored or edited 10 books, and holds 3 patents, contributing to secure systems in distributed applications, networks, mobile systems, smart cards, financial, telecom, and medical solutions. His research has been funded by 21 ARC grants over 27 years, Australian Defence, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, DFAT, EU projects, and industry partners such as Microsoft, HP, BT, and Fujitsu. He has supervised 42 PhD students and 12 Masters students, receiving Macquarie University Supervisor of the Year in 2003. Varadharajan has delivered over 60 keynote speeches and 240 invited talks, chaired or served on over 200 conference committees, and holds editorial roles on ACM Transactions on Information and System Security, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, and others. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, Institution of Electrical Engineers, Institute of Mathematics and Applications, Engineers Australia, Australian Computer Society, Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, and Royal Chartered Institute of Information Security Practitioners. Honors include the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman Award in 2017, Mercator Fellowship from the German Research Foundation with TU Darmstadt, and founding membership of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Advisory Board from 2002 to 2014.