Alumnus Stefan Savage Elected to NAE

Stefan Savage, a cybersecurity expert who received his undergraduate degree in applied history from the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1991, has received the prestigious honor of being elected to the National Academy of Engineering. 

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

Savage is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. In 2017, he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often known as a "genius grant." Savage and colleagues were the first to demonstrate the ability to hack an automobile remotely. He and collaborators also have identified a critical bottleneck for spam email campaigns and online counterfeit goods transactions. His research interests lie at the intersection of distributed systems, networking and computer security, with a current focus on embedded security and the economics of cybercrime.

Savage joins three current and two former members of the Carnegie Mellon University community as members of the NAE’s 2023 class. He is the second Dietrich College alumnus to receive the honor. William D. Magwood IV (MCS 1982, DC 1983) was elected to the NAE’s 2021 class.

Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE's annual meeting on Oct. 1, 2023. According to the NAE, they join a select group of national and international senior professionals in business, academia and government who have distinguished themselves through technical accomplishments and leadership. NAE members volunteer their time on initiatives that help guide the development of federal laws and regulations, improve the effectiveness of government programs, shape the direction of research fields, and inform public knowledge and dialogue about issues of critical importance.