Kundur, Deepa
Professor & Chair

Biography

Deepa Kundur is Professor and Chair of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Toronto and holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity of Intelligent Critical Infrastructure. A native of Toronto, Canada, she received her B.A.Sc., M.A.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1993, 1995, and 1999, respectively.

Professor Kundur’s research focuses on the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, with emphasis on energy and transportation systems, as well as data-centric approaches in psychiatry. Her work spans the modeling and analysis of cyber-physical attacks, advanced detection and inference methods using diverse and multimodal data sources, and cyber-physical strategies for infrastructure resilience. Her research applies methods drawn from deep learning, dynamical systems, applied cryptography, network theory, and optimization. She has authored over 275 publications and has received numerous paper awards.

Professor Kundur has held multiple academic leadership roles in addition to her current appointment as ECE Chair, including Chair of the Division of Engineering Science (2017–2019), during which time she spearheaded the development of Canada’s first undergraduate engineering major in Machine Intelligence. As Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering (2019–present), she has guided a significant expansion of the professional graduate program, led the creation of the University of Toronto’s first official Certificate in Cybersecurity, overseen substantive changes to the undergraduate curriculum, and advanced new philanthropic, industry, and alumni engagement initiatives for the department. Over this period, the department has recorded the highest recruitment of women students in its history, with women comprising 42% of the first-year entering undergraduate class in the most recent academic year.

Her professional service includes roles in national research funding and technical communities. She served as a member and Chair of the NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Group in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2013–2020), a primary source of federal research funding in Canada, and has contributed to advisory committees related to cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, as well as conference leadership and editorial roles at major IEEE and ACM venues. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada, and a Senior Fellow of Massey College.

Memberships/Awards

• Distinguished Woman Scholar Award, University of Victoria (2025) established by the University of Victoria to honour outstanding research and creative achievements by female-identifying scholars.
• Connaught Innovation Award (2025) for work on industrial control system honeypots for intelligent cyberattacker engagement.
• Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (2024) for excellence in engineering and services to the profession and society.
• Tier 1 Canada Research Chair (2024) in Cybersecurity of Intelligent Critical Infrastructure.
• Senior Fellow, Massey College (2019) elected from prominent representatives of both academic and professional interests at the University of Toronto to participate in Massey College activities.
• Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering (2016) for path-breaking engineering research at the interface of information processing and cyber security.
• IEEE Electrical Power and Energy Conference Best Paper Award (2015) for paper entitled “An Evolutionary Game Approach to Predict Demand Response from Real-Time Pricing” by Lee and Kundur.
• IEEE Smart Grid Communications Conference Best paper award (2015) for paper entitled “A Systematic Approach to Delay-Adaptive Control Design for Smart Grids” by Farraj, Hammad and Kundur.
• Elevation to IEEE Fellow (2015) for contributions to signal processing techniques for multimedia and cyber security.
• Best student paper award finalist (2012) at the 25th IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical & Computer Engineering for paper entitled “On the Use of Cyber-Physical Hierarchy for Smart Grid Security and Efficient Control”; role: faculty co-author.
• First Place Best Paper Award (2011) at the 7th Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop published by ACM for paper entitled “A Class of Cyber-Physical Switching Attacks for Power System Disruption.”
• Best Paper Award Finalist (2008) at IEEE INFOCOM Workshop on Mission Critical Networks for paper entitled “A Secure Integrated Routing and Localization Scheme for Broadband Mission Critical Networks”.
• Outstanding Professor Award (2007) awarded by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University.
• Association of Former Student’s Distinguished Achievement Award – College Level for Teaching (2006) presented by The Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University, for outstanding service to faculty, staff and students; this prominent award is one of the most coveted recognitions that can be bestowed upon a faculty member of Texas A&M University.
• Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award (2005) presented by the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University, for excellence in instruction, dedication to students, and outstanding commitment to engineering education at Texas A&M University.
• Best Electrical Engineering Professor Award (Spring-term) (2002) given by the ECE Club (ECE Department undergraduate students) at the University of Toronto, by popular vote.
• Gordon Slemon Teaching of Design Award (2002) awarded by the ECE Department, University of Toronto, for excellence in teaching and design project supervision.
• Infrastructure Award (2001) awarded by Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT).
• University of Toronto Fellowship (1997-1999) awarded by the ECE Department, University of Toronto for doctoral studies.
• NSERC PGS B Scholarship (1995-1997) awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for the first and second years of doctoral studies.
• NSERC PGS A Scholarship (1993-1995) awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for the first and second years of masters studies.
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Teaching Assistant Award (1995) presented by the undergraduate students of the Department for excellence in teaching.
• Edward S. “Ted” Rogers Fellowship (1993) for academic excellence by a graduate student in the Communications Group at the University of Toronto.
• A Governor General’s Academic Medals Program Certificate (1993) for exceptional academic performance in an undergraduate degree program in Canada.
• SCIEX Industrial Scholarship (1993) in recognition of excellence in instrumentation design.
• F.C.C.P. – John Hin Chung Tsang Memorial Scholarship (1993) for graduating from Electrical Engineering undergraduate program with the highest standing in telecommunications courses at the University of Toronto.
• J. E. Reid Memorial Prize (1993) for achieving the highest aggregate percentage in the Fourth Year subjects pertaining to electronic communication at the University of Toronto.
• Andrew Alexander Kinghorn Scholarship (1990) for achieving the highest average in the first year of studies for all undergraduate Engineering programs at the University of Toronto.
• Canada Scholarship (1989-1993) awarded by the Canadian Government for academic excellence in high school and for maintaining an honours standing in university.
• J. W. Billes Open Entrance Scholarship (1989-1993) awarded by the University of Toronto for academic excellence in high school and for maintaining an honours standing in university.
• Ontario Energy Board Working Group on developing a Framework for Protecting Privacy of Personal Information and the Reliable Operation of the Smart Grid in Ontario Steering Committee, steering committee member, June 2016 – present.
• IEEE Smart Grid Communications Subcommittee of the IEEE Communications Society, steering committee, 2014.
• IEEE Multimedia Communications Technical Committee, board member, appointed, international office, September 2010-2012
• North American Electrical Reliability Corporation (NERC) Smart Grid Task Force, November 2009 – 2011
• IEEE Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee (IFS-TC), April 2008 – March 2012
• IEEE Information Forensics and Security Technical Committee chair to the Education/Tutorial Subcommittee, April 2010 – March 2012
• IEEE Multimedia Communications Technical Committee, vice-Chair of Security Interest Group, September 2005-August 2010
• IEEE Senior Member, 2003 – present
• Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), 2000 – present