Fan Zhang in front of the IAEA in 2019.
NE Research Assistant Professor Fan Zhang presented findings from her research on the global concern of cybersecurity for nuclear facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) member states.
Zhang was selected along with two other presenters as a guest speaker for “Building Awareness and Advancing Research in Computer Security for Nuclear Security,” the opening webinar of NucSecCyber webinar Series 2, which had 180 participants, the highest volume of attendance from all IAEA member states.
Zhang, who is an expert in cybersecurity for nuclear facilities, was invited to present the outcomes of an IAEA coordinated research project (CRP), “Enhancing Computer Security Incident Analysis at Nuclear Facilities.” The research brought together 20 institutions from 13 countries to improve computer security capabilities at nuclear facilities.
Researchers who collaborated in the CRP presented the project’s core findings and advancements that will support Member States’ awareness activities and research initiatives in computer security for nuclear facilities. Zhang’s role in the CRP was conducted while she was a doctoral student at UT, for which she built a research testbed for data generation, scenario designs, and cyber-attack detection model development.
In addition to research achievements recognized by the international community, Zhang has performed several agency missions and coordinated meetings in different countries with the IAEA.