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Cyber SMART Graduate Student Award

Recognizing Outstanding Doctoral Research Across the Full Spectrum of Cyber

The NSF Cyber SMART Graduate Award recognizes outstanding doctoral research by Ph.D. graduates of Cyber SMART's four university sites whose dissertation work advances the Center's mission:

A holistic, multidisciplinary approach to cyber research that integrates deep technology with the social, behavioral, regulatory, and managerial dimensions of emerging technologies.

Cyber SMART's name — Science, Management, Applications, Regulation, and Training — captures the breadth of contributions the award is designed to honor. Nominated work may sit anywhere along this spectrum, from core computer science and engineering to law, economics, management, behavioral and cognitive sciences, ethics, and the intersections among them.

Up to four awards will be presented each year, one per Cyber SMART site institution:

  • Georgetown University
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Virginia Tech
  • University of Technology Sydney

Awardees will receive a commemorative plaque and formal recognition at a NSF Cyber SMART Industry Advisory Board (IAB) meeting.

Eligibility

The award is open to Ph.D. students who have graduated from Georgetown University, the University of Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, or the University of Technology Sydney during the current academic year, or who are on track to defend their dissertation before the end of the current academic year.

To be eligible, the nominated dissertation research must be clearly aligned with Cyber SMART's research agenda. This includes, but is not limited to, contributions in:

  • Cybersecurity and secure communications
  • Secure information systems
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning, including intersections with neuroscience, neurotechnology, human biometrics, and biologically-inspired algorithms
  • Distributed ledger technology and standards
  • Open Economy, Open Banking, and financial services technology
  • Digital identity, decentralized identity, and verifiable credentials
  • Data protection and privacy
  • Media forensics and digital forensics
  • Supply chain and provenance management
  • US and international cyber law and regulation
  • Behavioral, cognitive, and social dimensions of cyber, including digital humanities
  • Policy, standards, ethics, and workforce development related to emerging cyber technologies

Consistent with the Center's mission, interdisciplinary work that bridges two or more of these areas is especially welcome. Direct funding from or participation in an NSF Cyber SMART-sponsored project is not required, but the nomination materials must clearly articulate how the dissertation advances the Center's multidisciplinary research agenda.

Nomination Procedure

Faculty members must submit the following three PDF documents to nominate a student:

  1. Student CV (PDF). A current CV listing the nominee's academic accomplishments, with refereed and non-refereed publications clearly identified. Please do not include copies of the publications themselves.
  2. Research statement from the student (max two pages, PDF). A self-contained description of the dissertation research, written for a general academic audience rather than specialists in a single discipline. The statement should clearly explain the research objectives, methods, results, and significance, and should articulate how the work connects to Cyber SMART's holistic, multidisciplinary approach. The quality and clarity of the writing are important selection criteria. Acronyms and field-specific terminology should be carefully defined.
  3. Nomination letter from the research advisor (max two pages, PDF). A letter from the student's dissertation advisor describing the significance of the student's contributions, their relationship to the Cyber SMART research agenda, and the student's overall trajectory as a researcher.

Deadline

Nominations for the 2026-2027 Cyber SMART Graduate Award are due Friday, May 1, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

Nominations for the 2026-2027 year are now closed.

Selection

Nominations will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of Cyber SMART leadership and faculty representatives from each of the four site universities. Awardees will be notified by Friday, May 8,  and recognized at the subsequent NSF Cyber SMART IAB meeting.

Questions

For questions about the award or the nomination process, please contact cybersmart@georgetown.edu.