Prashant Pillai

Prashant Pillai (born July 1979) is an Indian-born British computer scientist. He is the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He was previously the Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of Cyber Security at the University of Wolverhampton. He is also the Director of Cyber Quarter - Midlands Centre for Cyber Security. He specialises in security and privacy for communication networks. Pillai has led several national/international research projects in the areas of networking protocols and cyber security. He has been invited for talks at various international conferences and has published over 100 papers within peer-reviewed journals and conferences. , which was funded by the British Council under the Global Innovation Initiative scheme.

He then moved to Oxford Brookes University in 2017, as a Reader in Cyber Security and Head of the Cyber Security Research Group at the Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment. in 2018. He was interim Head of School for the School of Mathematics and Computer Science before taking on his current role as Associate Dean of Research and Knowledge Exchange at the same University. between the University of Wolverhampton and Herefordshire Council and part-funded by the Government’s Local Growth Fund, via the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

He has been a Co-founder and Director of several start-ups like Cydon, OnlynShield and CyberMind.

He has published over 100 papers in leading international journals and conferences and has a patent on Distributed Ledger Technology.

Honours, recognition and awards Pillai is the current Chair of the Cybersecurity Working Group of the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands.

He was also appointed as the Group Chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Blockchain group in 2022.

He was Co-chair of the Satellite Working Group of the IEEE International Network Generations Roadmap (INGR) from 2018-2021.

Pillai was selected as one of ‘75 at 75’ Achievers in the India UK Achievers Honours 2023.

Pillai was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to cyber security and education.