World-leading cyber security expert moves to Surrey

Professor Chen, who joined Surrey’s Department of Computer Science in October 2016, will lead research into hardware security and cryptography – a key specialism within the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security. She was previously principal research scientist in the Security and Manageability Laboratory at Hewlett Packard (HP) Labs.

Professor Chen has invented or co-invented cryptographic solutions which have been incorporated into international standards and used in applications millions of people use every day. In the late 1990s she was instrumental in developing the trusted platform module (TPM), a hardware chip that ensures security by integrating cryptographic keys and algorithms into devices. In the early 2000s – working with IBM and Intel colleagues – she co-designed Direct Anonymous Attestation (DAA), a special digital signature scheme which provides the signer with authentication while maintaining their privacy. To date over a billion TPMs have been shipped and embedded in various computer systems, each incorporating DAA and other cryptographic functions to which Professor Chen has contributed.

During her 19 years at HP Labs, Professor Chen also designed and co-designed a number of cryptographic solutions which are now used in HP products.

In her role as Professor in Secure Systems at Surrey, Professor Chen will help to develop cyber security research at the highest level, and build strategic partnerships with other groups in the University and externally. An important part of her role will be to collaborate with the Institute for Communication Systems, 5G Innovation Centre and Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences – driving research in areas such as Big Data and eHealth. Drawing on her industry experience, she will also contribute valuable teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Professor Chen, who held posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, University of Oxford and Southeast University in China prior to joining HP Labs, said, “When this opportunity arose, I realised that I was keen to return to teaching and working with students as I found the work very rewarding. In addition, having worked on information security research for over 25 years, I was keen to work in what GCHQ regards as an academic centre of excellence in cyber security research.”

“I aim to build Surrey’s reputation for cryptography and secure systems research further by developing algorithms that are used in the real world and become incorporated in standards. Security is everywhere – this is a good time for research in this field.”

Professor Steve Schneider, Director of Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, commented, “We are delighted to be welcoming Liqun Chen to the Department of Computer Science. Her unparalleled experience in the field of trusted computing, and her role in developing some of the key technologies we use today, will enable us to break new ground in our research in areas such as security verification and data privacy.”

Discover our programmes in Computer Science.