Faculty and Staff
Dr. Heather Lipford
Professor and Associate Dean
Dr. Heather Lipford is currently serving as the Interim Associate Dean of Research for the College of Computing and Informatics at UNC Charlotte. Her primary research interests are in Usable Security and Privacy, which is the intersection of Human Computer Interaction and information security and privacy. Her research interests include IoT privacy and security for smarthome and wearable devices, supporting designers and developers in creating secure applications, leveraging community for security and privacy, and security education. She co-authored the first comprehensive research survey of usable privacy and security, and has served in active leadership roles throughout the community for the past decade.
Dr. Lipford completed her Ph.D. in 2005 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a co-founder of the HCI Lab at UNC Charlotte, and member of the CyberDNA Center. She previously served as the Graduate Program Director of the Master’s in Information Technology and Cybersecurity.
Dr. Bojan Cukic
Professor and Associate Dean
Dr. Bojan Cukic is a Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Student Success in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). He previously served as the Chair of the Department of Computer Science and the Interim Executive Director of the UNCC Data Science Initiative. Dr. Cukic’s research interests include information assurance and biometrics, software engineering with emphasis on verification and validation, and resilient computing. He received MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Houston, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Rijeka, Croatia.
Dr. Cukic received a National Science Foundation Career award. His research was recognized with the Tycho Brahe award from NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. He often collaborates with industry and has served as the director of the Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), an NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center. He co-founded a startup, NexID Biometrics Inc., subsequently acquired by Precise Biometrics.