Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham is the Founders Chair Professor of Computer Science and the Founding Executive Director of the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute at The University of Texas at Dallas (2004-2021). She was a visiting Senior Research Fellow at Kings College, University of London 2015-2022, A New America Foundation Policy Fellow 2017-8 focusing on workforce development, and currently serves as an Associate Director of the USDOT National UTC on Transportation Systems Security since 2023. She is an elected Fellow of multiple organizations including the ACM, IEEE, AAAS, NAI (National Academy of Inventors) and the BCS (British Computer Society). Her research interests are on (i) integrating cyber security and data science/ML/AI including as they relate to the cloud, social media, Internet of Things, and more recently Transportation Systems, (ii) Cyber Security and AI Policy and Governance and (iii) Education research to give students the best learning experience. She is also a Co-Director of the Women in Cyber Security and Women in Data Science Centers at UTD. Her 44 year career includes industry (Honeywell), Federal Research Laboratory (MITRE), US government (NSF) and Academia.

Dr. Thuraisingham has received several technical, education and leadership awards including the IEEE CS (Computer Society) 1997 Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award, the 2023 IEEE CS Taylor L. Booth Education Award, ACM SIGSAC 2010 Outstanding Contributions Award, the IEEE ComSoc Communications and Information Security 2019 Technical Recognition Award, the IEEE CS TC (Technical Committee) on Services Computing 2017 Research Innovation Award, the IEEE CS TC on Multimedia Computing 2023 Technical Impact Award, the ACM CODASPY 2017 Lasting Research Award, 2013 IBM Faculty Award, the IEEE ISI 2010 Research Leadership Award, the IEEE ICDM 2018 Service Award, the ACM SACMAT 10 Year Test of Time Awards for 2018 and 2019 (for papers published in 2008 and 2009), IEEE Big Data Security 2024 Pioneer Award, the IEEE CS TC on Cloud Computing Women in Cloud Computing Award, the, the Career Communications Inc., Woman of Color Research Leadership Award, and the Dallas Business Journal 2017 Women in Technology Award. She served as the IEEE CS Fellows Committee Chair in 2021 and 2022 and serves on the ACM Publications Board (since 2020) as well as on the Women's Innovation Group for NAI (since 2024). She was named one of 500 prominent business leaders in Dallas CEO magazine for 2021, 2022, and 2023.

She has delivered over 200 keynote/featured addresses, over 100 panel presentations including at the United Nations, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Fortune Media, Dell Technologies World, Lloyds of London Insurance, and Professors Without Borders, written 16 books, published over 130 journal articles (including in several IEEE and ACM Transactions), over 300 conference papers (including in top tier venues such as ACM CCS, ACM KDD, IEEE ICDM, IEEE ICDE, VLDB, and AAAI), has 7 US patents, transferred the technologies she developed to commercial products and operational systems, and participated in several podcasts. She has also written opinion columns on security for venues such as the New York Times, WomensDay.com, Inc. Magazine, the Legal 500 and the Connected World. Out of the 23 PhD students she has graduated at UTD, 11 are female and others include those from the African American, Latino American, and the LGBTQ communities. She also works with neurodiverse students in cyber security. Over the years she has educated a global community and is affiliated with the University of Dschang in Cameroon, Africa since 2021 teaching a course on Trutworthy Machine Learning, and educates the general public in practicing cyber hygiene including talks at public libraries in DFW. She teaches a variety of courses ay UTD including Trustworthy AI/ML, Big Data Security and Privacy, Blockchain Technologies, Secure Cloud and IoT, and Analyzing and Securing Social Media.

Dr. Thuraisingham received her PhD from the University of Wales, Swansea, UK, and the prestigious earned higher doctorate (D. Eng) from the University of Bristol, UK. She has a Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has been featured in the book by the ACM titled: "Rendering History: The Women of ACM-W" as one of the 30+ "Women that Changed the Face of Worldwide Computing Forever" in 2024. She writes motivational articles and gives motivational addresses to women around the world discussing many topics including the importance of having a high paying job, mentoring, and playing the long game for career success.