Associate Professor of Computer Sciences (1987)
B.A., mathematics and computer science, SUNY College at Brockport, 1979; M.S., information and computer science, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1981; Ph.D., information and computer science, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1986
Before coming to Purdue, Dr. Spafford was a research scientist with the Software Engineering Research Center at Georgia Institute of Technology. While there, he participated in research efforts in software testing, software engineering liability, and distributed computing (the Clouds project).
Dr. Spafford's current research interests involve software engineering and computing systems--including issues of design, implementation, reliability, and maintenance. Of particular interest are computer security issues, debugging and testing technology, and multiprocessor computing systems. Other interests include electronic message systems, societal implications of computing, and computer science education. He is actively involved with the Software Engineering Research Center and is founder of the COAST group at Purdue.
Among other professional activities, Dr. Spafford is chair of the ACM Self-Assessment Committee, is chair of IFIP WG 11.4 on Network Security, is a charter member of the ACM Technical Standards Committee, and is a member of the advisory board of the National Research Center on Computers and Society. He is on the editorial and advisory boards of the International Journal of Computer and Software Engineering, the Virus Bulletin, the Journal of Artificial Life, and the Journal of Information Systems Security.
Dr. Spafford is coauthor of the recent books Practical Unix and Internet Security (with S. L. Garfinkel), published by O'Reilly and Associates (1991, 1996), consulting editor to Computer Crime: A Crime-Fighter's Handbook, and Computer Viruses: Dealing with Electronic Vandalism and Programmed Threats (with K. A. Heaphy and D. J. Ferbrache), published by ADAPSO, 1989.
Projects: Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), New Approaches to Software Debugging, Computer Operations, Audit, and Security Technology