John Savage

An Wang Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
Box 1910, Computer Science Department
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
401-863-7642 (voice)
401-863-7657 (fax)
Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Center for Information Technology, Room 503
Send me email at: john_savage@brown.edu

Biographical Sketch

Professor Savage earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering at MIT in 1965 specializing in coding and communication theory. He joined Bell Laboratories in 1965 and the faculty of the Division of Engineering at Brown University in 1967. In 1979 he co-founded the Department of Computer Science and served as its second chair from 1985 to 1991.

By the early 1970s his research interests changed from coding and communication theory to theoretical computer science. He has done research in computational complexity, circuit complexity, space-time tradeoffs, VLSI synthesis and theory, parallel algorithms and theory, scientific computation, reliable computation with unreliable components, computational nanotechnology, efficient cache management on multicore chips, and I/O complexity. His current research interests are in cybersecurity technology and policy. He has published more than 110 research articles and given more than 185 invited technical presentations worldwide.

He is a Fellow of AAAS and ACM, a Life Fellow of IEEE, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Research Award. He served as a Jefferson Science Fellow in the U.S. State Department during the 2009-2010 academic year and as a member of the Rhode Island Cybersecurity Commission in 2015. He served as a Professorial Fellow of the EastWest Institute from 2014 to 2020 when it was dissolved.

His professional service has included service on the editorial board of the Journal of Computer and Systems Sciences and as a member of the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1991-2002. He gave testimony before the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism of the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 12, 2011.

A more comprehensive, but incomplete, biographical statement can be found here. A complete vitae can be found here.

Books

Security in the Cyber Age: An Introduction to Policy and Technology (with Derek S. Reveron), Cambridge University Press, November, 2023
The book is available on Amazon and at a discount at Cambridge University Press using the code SECA2023 at checkout.
Models of Computation: Exploring the Power of Computing Addison-Wesley, 1998. (Freely available electronically!)
The Mystical Machine (with S. Magidson and A. Stein), Addison-Wesley, 1986.
The Complexity of Computing, John Wiley and Sons, 1976; Robert E. Kreiger Publishing Company, 1987; Russian Translation. by Factorial Publishing, 1998

Recently Taught Courses

CSCI 0510, Models of Computation
CSCI 1951-E, Computer Systems Security: Principles and Practice
CSCI 1800, Cybersecurity and International Relations

Faculty Bulletin Articles

The Growth of Brown University Since 1955, October 1996
The Role of Tenure in Higher Education, May 1998

Representative Brown Service Activities

Secretary of the Faculty (2015), Secretary of the Faculty Forum (2014-2016)
Vice Chair (2000-2001), Chair (2001-2002), and Past Chair (2002-2003) of the Faculty Executive Committee
Chair (2002-2003) of the Task Force on Faculty Governance
President (1999-2002) of the Board of Managers of the Brown Faculty Club
Distance Learning Web Pages prepared for The Committee on Electronically Mediated Instruction

Talks, Interviews, Podcasts and Congressional Testimony

Cyberspace - Taming the Wild West Jefferson Science Fellow Distinguished Lecture, US State Department, March 23, 2010

Hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, April 12, 2011. John Savage is on the second panel which begins at 1:41 minutes.

Silver Bullet Talks with John Savage by Gary McGraw, January 24, 2011. (No video)

Cyberspace Policy and Technology, The Sarah and John Graves Distinguished Cybersecurity Lecture, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, October 14, 2016

Blockchain Governance: Lessons learned from Internet Governance, A summary of a talk given at ETH Zurich, March 8, 2018. (No video)

Technology and the Future of Work Part 1, White House Chronicle, February 2, 2018
Guests: Thomas Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management; John Savage, Brown University

Technology and the Future of Work Part 2, White House Chronicle, February 9, 2018
Guests: Thomas Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management; John Savage, Brown University

Humanizing the internet of things, White House Chronicle, John Savage, Brown University, October 5, 2018

Cyber Security – A Societal Grand Challenge, John Savage's retirement lecture, Department of Computer Science, Brown University, December 13, 2018
The Worries and Wonders of AI