David Lie
David Lie is a computer-systems security researcher whose work connects trusted execution, Android permissions and safe AI. He earned degrees at the University of Toronto and Stanford, worked on the XOM architecture and developed PScout. His XOM work earned a 2003 SOSP Best Paper Award. He served as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair, held a security leadership role at Enomaly, visited Google as a research scientist, and received the 2017 Connaught Global Challenge Award. He is director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute and holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Secure and Reliable Systems at the University of Toronto, where he is an ECE professor and leads a four-university project on safe and secure AI.
Timeline
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1998–2004
Degrees in Toronto and Stanford
He earns a BASc at the University of Toronto in 1998, an MS at Stanford in 2001, and a PhD there in 2004.
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2003
XOM and trusted execution
His work on the XOM architecture earns a Best Paper Award at SOSP in 2003. The architecture is an early precursor to modern trusted execution processor architectures such as ARM Trustzone and Intel SGX.
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2009–2010
Chief Security Architect at Enomaly
From 2009 to 2010, he serves as Chief Security Architect at Enomaly, a Toronto-area startup.
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2012
PScout maps Android permissions
He develops PScout, an Android permission-mapping tool; its datasets are downloaded more than 10,000 times and used in dozens of later papers. His PScout paper appears at ACM CCS in 2012.
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2013–2018
Tier 2 Canada Research Chair
He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair from 2013 to 2018.
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2016–2017
Visiting research scientist at Google
From 2016 to 2017, he is a visiting research scientist at Google.
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2017
Connaught Global Challenge Award
He receives the Connaught Global Challenge Award in 2017.
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2024
Schwartz Reisman Institute appointment
In 2024, he is named the next director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
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2024–2028
An end-to-end AI safety project
From 2024 to 2028, he leads a $5.6 million NSERC–CSE initiative across four Canadian universities to improve AI safety and security from data acquisition to model deployment.
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As of October 2026
Professor and SRI director
As of October 2026, he is a professor in the University of Toronto's ECE department and director of SRI, and holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Secure and Reliable Systems. In October 2026, he and colleagues Nicolas Papernot and Tom Ristenpart publish an open letter calling for cooperation between AI and cybersecurity communities and transparent information about incidents.
Career
- NowUniversity of TorontoProfessor, ECE department
- NowUniversity of TorontoTier 1 Canada Research Chair in Secure and Reliable Systems
- NowSchwartz Reisman InstituteDirector, Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
- 2016–2017GoogleVisiting Research Scientist
- 2013–2018University of TorontoTier 2 Canada Research Chair
- 2009–2010EnomalyChief Security Architect
Education
- 2004Stanford UniversityPhD
- 2001Stanford UniversityMS
- 1998University of TorontoBASc
Colleagues
Sources and credits
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- Lie, David Professor - Electrical & Computer Engineering
- David Lie – Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto
- David Lie | University of Toronto Faculty of Law
- Publications – David Lie
- PScout: Analyzing the Android permission specification - DePaul University Research Portal
- David Lie appointed Director of SRI; David Duvenaud and Roger Grosse appointed Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society
- An End-to-End Approach to Safe and Secure AI Systems
- SRI Director David Lie and collaborators awarded $5.6 million for cutting-edge research on robust, secure, and safe AI
- SRI leadership and affiliates join global call for urgent AI cybersecurity safeguards
- Open Letter on AI and Cybersecurity Posted