Robert Watson | |
|---|---|
 Watson in 2008 | |
| Born | (1977-05-03)3 May 1977 (age 48) Harrow, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University Wolfson College, Cambridge |
| Known for | contributions toFreeBSD,TrustedBSD,OpenBSM |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer security[1] Operating systems[2][3] Network stacks Programming languages Computer architecture[4][5] |
| Institutions | Cambridge Computer Laboratory University of Cambridge St John's College, Cambridge |
| Thesis | New approaches to operating system security extensibility (2011) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ross Anderson |
| Website | www www people |
Robert Nicholas Maxwell Watson (born 3 May 1977) is aFreeBSD developer, and founder of theTrustedBSD Project.[6] He is currently employed as a Professor of Systems, Security, and Architecture in the Security Research Group at theUniversity of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.[7][8][9][10]
Watson graduated in computer science fromCarnegie Mellon University and has attained a PhD fromUniversity of Cambridge. As well as Cambridge, he has worked at theNational Institutes of Health,Carnegie Mellon University,Trusted Information Systems,Network Associates,McAfee, and SPARTA. He obtained a PhD in computer security[11] from theUniversity of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, supervised byRoss Anderson and sponsored by Google.[11]
Watson's work has been supported byDARPA,Apple Computer, the Navy, and other US government agencies. His main research interests are network security and operating system security. His mainopen source software contributions include his work in developing the multi-threaded and multi-processorFreeBSD network stack, theTrustedBSD project, andOpenBSM. His writing has been featured in forums such as ACM's Queue Magazine,[12] theUSENIX Annual Technical Conference, BSDCon, and a Slashdot interview.[13] He was also aFreeBSD Core Team member from 2000 to 2012.[14] Watson is coauthor of the standard textbookThe Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System (2nd ed., 2015) byMarshall Kirk McKusick.[15]
