Key details
Professor George Loukas
Professor of Cyber Security (Human-centric and Cyber-physical Security)
George Loukas is a Professor of Cyber Security with particular interest in human-centric, applied and data-driven cyber security applications in cyber-physical environments. His research has been supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Commission, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK Ministry of Defence and the British Council. Some highlights include the coordination of project EUNOMIA which developed the first social media platform that helps users tell the trustworthiness of what they share through it, and project CHAI which developed the first mechanism assisting users in telling whether their smart home AI has been compromised.
Professor Loukas has a PhD in Network Security from Imperial College. He is on the editorial board of IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security. He has previously been on the editorial board of BCS's The Computer Journal and Elsevier's Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory, as well as founding member of the IEEE working group on Internet of Things and Cultural Heritage. His 2015 book on cyber-physical attacks has been adopted in the curricula of universities internationally and was included in ACM’s top 10 of computing Milieux books and articles published that year.
Responsibilities within the university
- Head, Centre for Sustainable Cyber Security
- Subject Group Leader for "Networks, Security and Forensics"
- REF Lead for UoA 11
Awards
Research Grants
| 2026 – 2029 | P.I., Horizon Europe, HOMAGE (UoG: €400K). |
| 2025 – 2027 | P.I., Horizon Europe, GANNDALF (UoG: €343K). |
| 2025 – 2026 | co-I, Innovate UK, PRESENZA (UoG: €92K). |
| 2022 – 2025 | P.I., Horizon Europe, SUN (UoG: €475K). |
| 2021 – 2024 | co-I, H2020 RESCUER (UoG: €441K) |
| 2020 – 2023 | P.I. & overall project coordinator, EPSRC CHAI (UoG: £453K, total project value: £1.9M including EP/T026812/1, EP/T026820/1, EP/T026707/1, EP/T026596/1). |
| 2020 – 2022 | co-I, H2020 ENSURESEC (UoG: €489K) |
| 2019 – 2022 | co-I, H2020 C4IIoT (UoG: €250K) |
| 2018 – 2021 | P.I. & overall project coordinator & technical manager, H2020 EUNOMIA (UoG: €512K, total project value: €2.9M) |
| 2018 – 2021 | co-I, H2020 CUREX (UoG: €250K). |
| 2018 – 2019 | P.I & overall project coordinator, British Council Secure Hajj (UoG: £20K, total project value: £42K) |
| 2016 – 2018 | UoG P.I. (co-I for Reading University), EPSRC/CHIST-ERA COCOON (UoG: 277K Euro) |
| 2015 – 2018 | P.I., H2020 TRILLION (UoG: €334K) |
| 2013 – 2016 | Co-I, MoD/dstl PhD scholarship (UoG: £117K) |
| 2013 – 2014 | P.I., EU ISEC ECENTRE (UoG: €70K) |
Knowledge Exchange
| 2021 – 2022 | Co-I., NCSC, Security Economics for the Connected Place Supply Chains (UoG: £50K). |
| 2016 – 2017 | Co-I., HEFCE, Cyber Security Engineering MSc (UoG: £50K) |
| 2012 – 2013 | P.I., Metropolitan Police, Cyber-physical counterterrorism training (UoG: £37.5K) |
Research / Scholarly interests
Research topics
- Internet of Things and Cyber-physical system security
- Machine learning applications in cyber security
- Information trustworthiness
- Human-as-a-Security-Sensor
- Digital forensics
- Network security
- Trustworthy AI
Research supervision
Doctoral Students (Current)
- Ahmed Ahmed: Geometric post-quantum cryptography.
- Olufunke Ajenifuja: Age verification in XR
- Aksshar Ramesh: AI cyber hygiene
- Alfaz Ahmed Rahat: Decolonisation of AI safety research
- Emily Parsons: Cyber Risk Management for IoT-enabled Smart Homes.
- Anthony Yekovie: Autonomous Safety and Security Validation System for IoT Applications
Doctoral Students (Completed)
- Blessing Odeleye - 2025, PhD, Cyber security of VR environments
- Lal Akhter - 2025, PhD, Model-based Software Security Assurance
- Dennis Ivory - 2025, PhD, Human-as-a-security-sensor in the Internet of Things
- Antonia Nisioti - 2022, PhD, Data-Driven Decision Support for Optimizing Cyber Forensic Investigations - Upon completion moved a to SOC Team Lead position at Secrutiny.
- Ali Jaddoa - 2022, PhD, Computation offloading in IoT environments - Upon completion moved to a Univ. of Greenwich post-doc position at project RESCUER.
- Terry Brett - 2020, PhD, Understanding contagion spreading processes of cyber security threats through social networks - Upon completion moved to an Application Developer position at IBM.
- Dr David Gresty - 2018, PhD, Forensic timeline analysis - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich lecturer position.
- Ryan Heartfield - 2017, PhD, Utilising the concept of Human-as-a-Security-Sensor for detecting semantic social engineering attacks - Upon completion moved to a Univ. of Greenwich postdoc position.
- Anatolij Bezemskij - 2017, PhD, Safeguarding Autonomous Vehicles from Cyber Attacks< - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich post-doc position in EPSRC/CHIST-ERA project Cocoon.
- Tuan Vuong - 2017, PhD, Cyber-physical security of robotic vehicles - Upon completion moved to a University of Greenwich lecturer position.
Postdoctoral Researchers
- Dr Naila Azam – 2025-2027, GANNDALF project - Current
- Dr Riccardo Bovo – 2025-2026, SUN project, PRESENZA project – Moved to University of Greenwich lectureship
- Dr Hsueh-Ju Chen – 2021-23, CHAI project – Moved to Lead Data Quality & Management Engineer position at Jaguar Land Rover
- Dr Ijaz Ahmed - 2020-22, ENSURESEC - Moved to lecturer position at Cardiff Metropolitan University.
- Dr Areeg Elgazazz - 2020-21, ENSURESEC - Moved to postdoc position at UiT, Norway.
- Dr Xing Liang - 2019-21, EUNOMIA - Moved to lecturer position at Kingston University.
- Dr Ryan Heartfield - 2018-20, COCOON, EUNOMIA - Moved to Senior Security Architect role at Splunk.
- Dr Ali Jaddoa – 2022-2023, RESCUER – Moved to lecturer position at Canterbury Christ Church Univ.
- Dr Anatolij Bezemskij 2018-19, COCOON. Moved to a lecturer position at University of Greenwich.
- Dr Syed Sadiqur Rahman - 2016-17, TRILLION - Moved to lecturer position at Prince Mugrin University.
- Dr Avgoustinos Filippoupolitis - 2013-14, E-Centre. Moved to a Univ. of Greenwich lecturer position.