The Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University named Laurie Williams, the co-director of NC State’s Science of Security Lablet, as its new acting head after Mladen Vouk left the position to serve as the interim vice-chancellor for research, innovation, and economic development. 

Vouk, who led the department since 2004, filled the position after the previous vice-chancellor for research, innovation, and economic development Terri Lomax took a job as the executive vice president of Discovery-Science-Technology at RTI International.

Vouk has professional experience in both commercial software production and academic computing. According to his university biography, he has authored and co-authored a combined total of more than 300 publications.

He received a Ph.D. from the King’s College, University of London.  

Williams, who began her new position at the end of last semester, will retain her position as the co-director of NC State’s Science of Security Lablet and will act as department head. Williams has experience in agile software development and has researched the security of healthcare IT applications.

Williams leads the Software Engineering Realsearch research group at NC State, a group that aims to develop secure software and collaborate companies in the technology field, such as ABB Corporation, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel Networks and Red Hat.   Williams has received several awards for her research and education. She is the lead investigator for National Science Foundation grants involving the use of educational practices, such as agile software development and pair programming, to help retain more women and minorities in the field of computer science.

She received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah, an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a BS in industrial engineering from Lehigh University.