Scholar
Michael A. Specter
Google Scholar ID: lHmMK_4AAAAJ
Assistant Professor @ Georgia Tech | Prev.: EECS PhD from MIT
Citations & Impact
Citations
4,215
H-index
9
i10-index
9
Publications
19
Co-authors
37
list available
Publications
Resume (English only)
Academic Achievements
- His research has been featured in the New York Times (twice), The New Yorker, CNN, Vice, Bloomberg, Fortune, The Economist, and others. He received a research award from the Elections Verification Network and an EFF Pioneer Award for his joint work on encryption policy, which has been used in congressional testimony on surveillance and law enforcement. Outside academia, he has written for Lawfare and coauthored the EFF's Brief to the Supreme Court on reforming the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Research Experience
- Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science and Cybersecurity & Privacy at Georgia Tech, as well as a Senior Research Scientist at Google. He has taught several courses, including 'Intro to Information Security' in Spring 2025.
Education
- He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, advised by Gerry Sussman and Danny Weitzner. His thesis committee included Matthew D. Green, Joan Feigenbaum, and Ron Rivest. Before becoming a graduate student, he was research staff at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory.
Background
- His research focuses on systems security and applied cryptography, particularly in areas relevant to public policy. Topics of interest include surveillance, cryptographic accountability, content moderation, misinformation, and elections security.
Miscellany
- In his spare time, he enjoys finding bugs and is a contributor to Google’s Linux kernel fuzzer Syzkaller.
