Kristopher Micinski

Faculty Job Search

I am currently on the academic job market, targeting tenure track professorships at liberal arts colleges and universities. My goal is to find a position where I can combine my research program in computer security with close student mentorship.

I work on research that allows closing the gap between informal notions of security that users have and principled formalizations of security in the literature. As an example, my recent work has been on using an Android app’s GUI to enforce informed consent. To accomplish this, I frequently start with theoretical definitions of security (such as information flow) and assess how they can be reconciled with implementations in production systems. However, without human evaluation, our security policies frequently miss the mark: ultimately humans are the ones that have to understand and use those systems. I strive for a feedback loop between human computer interaction (which I use to evaluate security) and programming languages (which I use to formally reason about systems) to guide my research.

I also care very much about student instruction and mentorship. I continually reflect upon my educational style and experiment with different styles of pedagogy (such as active learning and flipped classroom approaches). While at UMD, I have served as both a TA and instructor on record, and these experiences have deeply informed my willingness to integrate teaching into my career long term.

Application Material

  • My CV describes in detail the work I’ve done over the past years.

  • Research statement. (~3.5 pages) Describes in depth a broad vision for my research and contrasts that with the work I have done in my dissertation.

  • Teaching statement. (~1.5 pages) Outlines my outlook on teaching and describes how my experiences have shaped my philosophy.

  • Diversity statement. (1 page) Describes why I am passionate about diversity and details steps I have taken to help foster it through my career.

  • @krismicinski (Twitter)

  • My blog gives a sample of some of the writing on topics I’ve recently found interesting and relevant.