Prashant Pillai (born July 1979) is an Indian-born British computer scientist. He is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He was previously the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Cyber Security at the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...

. He is also the Director of Cyber Quarter - Midlands Centre for Cyber Security. He specialises in

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercive change) caused by others, by restraining the freedom of others to act. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be of persons and social ...

and

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

for communication networks. Pillai has led several national/international research projects in the areas of networking protocols and cyber security. He has been invited for talks at various international conferences and has published over 100 papers within peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He is a Fellow of

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...

(FBCS), Fellow of the

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

(FHEA), Senior Member of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

(SMIEEE) and Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET).

Early life and education

Pillai was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and attended St. Columba's School in Delhi. He earned a BSc (Hons) in Electronics from the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

and an MSc in Informatics also from the

. He received his Ph.D. from

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

, UK for his thesis titled ''Authentication, Authorization and Accounting framework for multicast communication in highly mobile wireless networks.''

Career

Pillai started his academic career at

, UK where he moved from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer and held administrative positions like Director of Postgraduate Research and Deputy Head of Electrical Engineering. He led the two-year project named ''SITARA: Smart Grid to harness Satellite based Virtual Power Plants for energy sustainability','' which was funded by the British Council under the Global Innovation Initiative scheme. He then moved to

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...

in 2017, as a Reader in Cyber Security and Head of the Cyber Security Research Group at the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. Pillai joined the University of Wolverhampton, UK as Professor of Cyber Security and Director of the Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute in 2018. He was interim Head of School for the School of Mathematics and Computer Science before taking on his current role as Associate Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange at the same University. He is also the Centre Director for £9m Cyber Quarter - the Midlands Centre for Cyber Security. It is a joint venture between the University of Wolverhampton and Herefordshire Council and part-funded by the Government’s Local Growth Fund, via the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The Cyber Quarter was opened in December 2021. He has been a Co-founder and Director of several start-ups like Cydon, OnlynShield and CyberMind. He has published over 100 papers in leading international journals and conferences and has a patent on Distributed Ledger Technology.

Honours, recognition and awards

Pillai is the current Chair of the Cybersecurity Working Group of the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands. He was also appointed as the Group Chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Blockchain group in 2022. He was Co-chair of the Satellite Working Group of the IEEE International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) from 2018-2021. and is an Advisory Board Member of the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre. Pillai was selected as one of ‘75 at 75’ Achievers in the India UK Achievers Honours 2023. Pillai was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2023 New Year Honours The 2023 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to cyber security and education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pillai, Prashant 1979 births Living people Fellows of the British Computer Society Fellows of the Higher Education Academy Senior members of the IEEE Delhi University alumni Alumni of the University of Bradford Academics of the University of Wolverhampton Academics of Oxford Brookes University Members of the Order of the British Empire Indian emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Academics of the University of Bradford