An Oral History Interview with Sean Peisert

Abstract

This oral history interview with Dr. Sean Peisert begins by briefly exploring Dr. Peisert’s evolving early interests prior to and his first years of college at UCSD, and how he came to focus on computer science, and within computer science earned a Ph.D. at the same institution. As part of this he discusses key mentors and opportunities he had to work with standout computer scientists and computer security specialists early on, and continuing as a peer, to date in his career. This included work at the UCSD Supercomputer Center. He relates his decision to join Berkeley Lab as a Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and to become an Adjunct Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Davis. The bulk of the interview focuses on his research in various areas of computer security and privacy such as electronic voting, digital forensics, cybersecurity for energy delivery, intrusion detection systems, privacy and protocols for handling medical data. He discusses history of science, and his repeated penchant for finding ways to combine areas that previously had not been combined to help solve real world problems for government and for society. He also comments on teaching, his leadership with technical committees, the history of the Oakland Conference (IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy) and his service as General Chair, as well as his work in publishing that included strategic directions he took IEEE Security & Privacy, toward greater currency, and a board with greater gender and geographic diversity.