IU names cybersecurity director

Von Welch was named the deputy director of IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research on Feb. 8. The position gives Welch the opportunity to start a technical applied cybersecurity program at the CACR, he said.

“My goal is to really establish an applied cybersecurity program that takes some of the basic cybersecurity research and really helps that find a home with real customers,” he said.

In addition to providing full-time leadership for CACR, Welch’s primary responsibilities will be linking the Research and Education Network Information Sharing and Analysis Center, Global Research Network Operations Center and other units in addition to bringing security-related federal funding to the University.

“It’s been interesting learning a new university and new policies and practices and so forth,” he said. “Everyone has been really good at making me feel welcome and helpful in the process.”

Welch, a Bloomington native, was an independent consultant for a year and worked for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois.

“I’ve spent most of the last two decades of my career working alongside both security researchers and security practitioners and users of cybersecurity helping bridge between those three worlds,” he said.

“So far, I’ve really established myself by going around and meeting a number of people in the IU community, learning about their interests both in terms of what they are doing in cyber security research or what they might be interested in doing and just getting to know the community to start making those connections.”

Welch said he is excited for this opportunity.

“This is my first time working at IU,” he said. “I am originally from the Bloomington area, so it was not only a chance to come and work with a great team here at CACR but to also come back to the place I grew up.”