MC2 Graduate Student Daniel Votipka Receives John Karat Award

A graduate student in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2) is a recipient of the 2020 John Karat Usable Privacy and Security Student Research Award for his excellence in research and dedication to mentorship and community service.

Daniel Votipka, a fourth-year doctoral student in computer science, will be recognized for the award at the 2020 Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), which is currently taking place and co-located with the upcoming USENIX Security Symposium. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, both events are being conducted online.

The award is given in honor of John Karat's contributions to the usable privacy and security community and his dedication to mentoring students. Karat, who passed away in 2015, was an internationally recognized researcher in the field of human-computer interaction.

Graduate students are eligible for the award based on their research in usable privacy and security, their efforts to mentor others, and their community service for usable privacy and security (e.g., volunteer activities in conferences).

Michelle Mazurek, an associate professor of computer science and Votipka’s adviser, says the award is well-deserved.

“I couldn’t be happier for Dan,” she says. “This award reflects Dan's tremendous contributions to the human-centered security community, both in excellent research and in helping to build a stronger community for everyone.”

Votipka will complete his doctorate in computer science in December and will start as an assistant professor at Tufts University in January 2021. Given that much of his research is focused on human factors affecting security professionals, Votipka is active in the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory in addition to his work in MC2.