Roxana Geambașu is a Romanian-American computer scientist who is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. The topics of her research include

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mul ...

, security and privacy, and

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

Education

Geambașu is originally from

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Blejoi commu ...

in Romania, and graduated from

Politehnica University of Bucharest Politehnica University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea Politehnica din București) is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania. 200 years of activity have been celebrated lately, as the university was founded in 1818.Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, Geambașu came to be supported in her research by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

as one of their first Google PhD Fellows. She completed her Ph.D. in 2011, with three advisors, Steve Gribble, Tadayoshi Kohno, and

Hank Levy Henry Jacob "Hank" Levy (September 27, 1927 – September 18, 2001) was an American jazz composer and saxophonist whose works often employed unusual time signatures. He is best known as a big band composer for Stan Kenton and the Don Ellis Orc ...

. Her dissertation was ''Regaining Control over Cloud and Mobile Data''.

Contributions

As a graduate student, Geambașu led the Vanish project for handling "self-destructing data". In 2014, a team at Columbia led by Geambașu developed a tool called XRay for detecting correlations between ads shown to people and their personal data. With it, they found evidence that an advertising tool used by

Gmail Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active users worldwide. A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clients via the POP an ...

until November 2014 targeted ads based on sensitive personal information—something its policies, both those in place in 2014 and those in place now, say it does not do.

Recognition

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

'' named Geambașu in their "brilliant ten" in 2014 for her work tracking corporate use of personal data. She was given a

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

in 2016 for her work in cloud and mobile data privacy.She has also received an Early Career Award in Cybersecurity from the University of Washington Center for Academic Excellence. As well as a William Chan Dissertation Award, and two best paper awards at difference conferences.

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Geambasu, Roxana Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century Romanian scientists 21st-century Romanian women American computer scientists Columbia University faculty Expatriate academics in the United States Living people People from Ploiești Politehnica University of Bucharest alumni Romanian emigrants to the United States Romanian women computer scientists University of Washington alumni Sloan Research Fellows American women academics