Ex-Google exec joins WPI faculty

Courtesy of WPI Susan Landau, a former executive at Google, will join WPI July 1 as a professor of cybersecurity policy.

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By Rick Saia

A former executive at Google who is also an expert on cybersecurity, privacy and public policy will join the Worcester Polytechnic Institute faculty as a professor of cybersecurity policy, the school announced.

Susan Landau, who will join WPI as of July 1, will serve in the departments of computer science, and social science and policy studies.

"We are very excited to welcome Susan Landau to WPI," said Karen Kashmanian Oates, Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences. "She is an outstanding scholar and highly regarded expert on cybersecurity and privacy, issues at the forefront of ongoing national dialogues on the future of the Internet, government surveillance, and national security.

“She will bring considerable expertise and renown to our new Cybersecurity Program and will serve as a wonderful role model for women students of today and tomorrow," Oates added.

Landau was a senior staff privacy analyst at Google. In recent years, her focus has been on the security risks of embedding surveillance in communications infrastructures, and she has briefed members of the United States and European governments and participated in several industry reports on the issue, according to a statement from WPI.