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XiaoFeng Wang (computer scientist)

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For the retired Chinese politician, see Wang Xiaofeng (politician).
In this Chinese name, the family name is Wang.
The native form of this personal name is Wang Xiaofeng. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

XiaoFeng Wang
王晓峰
Alma mater
SpouseMa Nianli (马念莉)
Awards
  • IEEE Fellow (2018)
  • AAAS Fellow (2022)
  • ACM Fellow (2023)
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsIndiana University Bloomington
ThesisMultiagent coordination under untrusted and uncertain environments (2004)
Doctoral advisorPradeep Khosla
WebsiteDepartment page (archived)
Faculty page (archived)
Google Scholar page

XiaoFeng Wang (Chinese: 王晓峰; pinyin: Wáng Xiǎofēng) is a Chinese-American[1] computer scientist known for his research on computer security, cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity. Wang joined the faculty of Indiana University Bloomington (IU) in 2004. He was appointed as a full professor in 2015 and as the associate dean for research in 2023 at IU's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering.[2]

Wang graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a PhD in electrical and computer engineering in 2004 and joined Indiana University Bloomington as a faculty member the same year. He was an assistant professor from 2004 to 2010, associate professor from 2010 to 2015, and full professor from 2015 to 2025. He was named the James H. Rudy Professor of Computer Science, Engineering, and Informatics in 2017. He was the associate dean for research from 2023 until 2025, as well as serving as the director of the Center for Security and Privacy in Informatics, Computing, and Engineering and the director of secure computing.

He has been the author of hundreds of papers on computer security and related subjects, and is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He was the principal investigator of research projects totaling about $23 million during his time at IU, including leading the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Distributed Confidential Computing.[2][3][4] In the ACM, he has been the chair of its Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC) since 2021 and was its vice-chair for 2017 to 2021.[5]

In March 2025, Wang told IU he was planning to accept a position at another university after the end of the current academic year, and IU responded by putting him on administrative leave, locking him out of his office and laptop, disabling his email account, removing his faculty profile and contact information from the university website, and then firing him from his position by email a couple of weeks later without providing a reason for his dismissal. His wife, who also worked at IU, was similarly dismissed by email without explanation. On the same day he was fired, his two homes were searched by the United States FBI and Department of Homeland Security federal agencies. It was later reported that the university has been investigating whether Wang had properly revealed who he was collaborating with and the sources of the funding for his research – including whether he was receiving funding from China. Neither he nor his wife were arrested or charged with any crime, and the faculty labor union and 32 members of the IU computer science department faculty have protested the manner of his dismissal.

Biography

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Education

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Wang received a Bachelor of Engineering in computer science from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1993, a Master of Engineering in computer science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1996, and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004.[6][7] His doctoral dissertation is titled Multiagent Coordination Under Untrusted and Uncertain Environments (2004).[8] His doctoral advisor was Pradeep Khosla, currently serving as the eighth chancellor of the University of California, San Diego.[8][9]

Career

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After PhD graduation, Wang joined Indiana University Bloomington's School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering in 2004 as a faculty member. He served as assistant professor from 2004 to 2010, as associate professor from 2010 to 2015, and as full professor from 2015 to 2025.[6] He was named the James H. Rudy Professor of Computer Science, Engineering, and Informatics in 2017.[10]

Wang was the lead principal investigator for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Distributed Confidential Computing.[11] This NSF project in secure and trustworthy computing involved faculty from IU (the lead), Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, Ohio State University, Penn State, Purdue University, Spelman College and Yale University.[12] Wang was also the director of Indiana University's Center for Security and Privacy in Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SPICE).[12][13]

In the ACM, Wang has been the chair of the Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC).[5]

As of early March 2025, Wang was the associate dean for research; the James H. Rudy Professor of Computer Science, Engineering and Informatics; the director of Center for Security and Privacy in Informatics, Computing, and Engineering; and the director of Secure Computing at IU.[14]

Firing from university and investigation by FBI

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Approximately on March 14, 2025, the university removed his profile and the profile of his wife and their contact information from its website, and his whereabouts became unknown to his students.[2][4] The university did not explain its action, but it was later reported that the university had been investigating whether Wang had properly revealed who he was collaborating with and the sources of the funding for his research – including whether he was receiving funding from China.[2][15] Wang had been notified in mid-February 2025 that someone had made misconduct allegations against him, saying he had misidentified the principal investigator for a grant and failed to disclose some co-authors of his research, and the university had opened a formal investigation by March.[16] Asked about these allegations, Alex Tanford, the president of the IU Bloomington chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said "While these are technical violations of research protocols, they're not serious and they happen all the time."[16] Tanford said that such allegations could raise concern and warrant investigation, but without a presumption of guilt for serious research misconduct.[16]

On March 24, 2025, Wang's wife, whose position at the university did not include tenure, was fired from her position by email and notified that she would not be eligible to be rehired, with no reason given for her dismissal.[17][18][1][19]

On March 28, 2025, Wang's homes in Bloomington and Carmel, Indiana, were searched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Homeland Security, and he was fired from the university on the same day.[3][2][20] The notification that he had been fired was sent to him in a message sent only by email from university executive vice president and provost Rahul Shrivastav that said his employment was being terminated "effective immediately". The dismissal letter noted that Wang had informed the university of his intent to accept a new position at a different university and said he would be ineligible to be rehired by IU, but did not provide an explicit reason for his immediate dismissal.[15][20][21]

The search warrants are currently sealed, although Riana Pfefferkorn, a researcher at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered AI, filed a motion to unseal them.[22][23][24] The acting U.S. attorney of the Southern District of Indiana, John E. Childress, filed a response on April 17, arguing for continued secrecy.[18] While Wang's whereabouts are unknown by the public, his union representative has communicated with him as recently as March 28, 2025, and a defense lawyer was present at his home during the search.[2][20] On April 2, 2025, a defense attorney made a statement on his behalf, saying that neither Wang nor his spouse had been arrested or charged with a crime.[25]

On March 31, 2025, the Bloomington chapter of the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to IU saying that the university administration had fired Wang without due process and against the codified university policy and that he should be reinstated to the faculty.[20][26][4][27] Later reports indicated that he was planning to leave IU to accept a position at a university in Singapore in June 2025 and had requested a leave of absence from the university in early March. The university had responded by putting him on administrative leave and locking him out of his office and laptop and disabling his email account before dismissing him by email a couple of weeks later.[25][15] His union representative said that Wang's notification that he would be accepting a new position would not be a valid reason to fire him without allowing him to complete the current academic year as an IU faculty member.[15] He also said the university's policy prohibits firing a tenured professor by email or without cause and requires at least a 10-day notice and the opportunity for a hearing.[15] In cases without a finding of serious personal misconduct, the policy prescribes a one-year notice in writing before termination.[27]

On April 2, 2025, 32 faculty members of the IU computer science department sent a letter to the university saying that Wang's "summary termination" was contrary to university policy and requesting the action to be revoked (19 by name and 13 anonymously). The letter said "Many of us are confused, saddened and frightened by the IU administration's actions." It acknowledged awareness that Wang is under investigation by law enforcement, but said "this alone cannot justify the termination of a tenured professor without following the due process to which all tenured faculty are entitled," and that "Treating a faculty colleague in this manner is undermining the university's ability to attract and retain high-caliber faculty members."[23][28]

On April 17, 2025, Yuzhen Ye, the chair of the IU computer science department, whose name was first on the faculty protest letter's list of signatories, spoke at a campus protest rally held for the National Day of Action to defend higher education (a national event in which 179 university campuses participated), and she questioned the evidence that appeared to have been the basis of the allegation that Wang had not properly disclosed funding information. She said that a researcher had applied for a 2017–2018 grant in China without Wang's knowledge, and that Wang had provided supporting information to the university in response to their investigation.[29] She said the situation "really could have unfolded in a very different way if IU administration had chosen to trust its own faculty or give them a fair chance to respond".[29] She said "I'm really saddened that IU just terminated someone's appointment after this many years of dedicated contribution to the school."[30]

Honors

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Wang was recognized as a fellow of the IEEE in 2018, of the AAAS in 2022, and of the ACM in 2023.[31]

Personal life

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Prior to their suspension and dismissal from IU, Wang lived in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife Ma Nianli (马念莉), who was a systems analyst and programmer at the IU Library Technologies division.[2][3] They also had a home in Carmel, Indiana, a northern suburb of Indianapolis about 70 miles (110 kilometers) from the IU campus. The couple also has a son, who was born in Indiana and has launched a GoFundMe page to help fund his parents' legal defense.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Wang's wife asks 'What have we done to deserve this treatment?'". Indiana Public Media. April 15, 2025. In her first public appearance since she and her husband were fired from Indiana University – and their homes were searched by the FBI – Nianli Ma said they are 'loyal Chinese-Americans and lawful immigrants'.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Goodin, Dan (March 30, 2025). "FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025. Retrieved March 31, 2025. In recent weeks, Wang's email account, phone number, and profile page at the Luddy School were quietly erased by his employer. Over the same time, Indiana University also removed a profile for his wife, Nianli Ma, who was listed as a Lead Systems Analyst and Programmer at the university's Library Technologies division. ... 'None of this is in any way normal,' Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: 'Has anyone been in contact? I hear he's been missing for two weeks and his students can't reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???'
  3. ^ a b c Lane, Laura (March 28, 2025). "FBI, Homeland Security agents search house on Xavier Court in Bloomington". The Herald-Times. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Sandweiss, Ethan. "Faculty group says IU violated policy when firing professor". Indiana Public Media. Archived from the original on March 31, 2025. Retrieved April 1, 2025. IU removed webpages mentioning Wang on March 14, two weeks before the FBI search. Webpages mentioning his wife Nianli Ma, a staff member at IU Libraries, were deleted as well.
  5. ^ a b "ACM Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control (SIGSAC) – Chairman: XiaoFeng Wang". Association for Computing Machinery. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  6. ^ a b "XiaoFeng Wang – Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Indiana University School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 21, 2024. Retrieved July 21, 2024.
  7. ^ "Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University". www.csc.ncsu.edu. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Multiagent Coordination Under Untrusted and Uncertain Environments". ProQuest. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  9. ^ "About the Chancellor". University of California, San Diego. Archived from the original on March 26, 2025. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  10. ^ "IU cybersecurity researchers awarded multi-institutional NSF grants to protect data, user privacy". news.iu.edu. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  11. ^ "Center for Distributed Confidential Computing". Center for Distributed Confidential Computing. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
  12. ^ a b "Xiaofeng Wang". Indiana University Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors. Archived from the original on September 11, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  13. ^ "Siek, Wang named ACM Distinguished Members". Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering: News Archive. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  14. ^ "Profile – XiaoFeng Wang". Indiana University Bloomington. Archived from the original on December 5, 2024. Retrieved March 29, 2025.
  15. ^ a b c d e "Cybersecurity Professor Faced China-Funding Inquiry Before Disappearing, Sources Say". Wired. April 2, 2025. Wang's new job offer 'would be irrelevant in any event because it is for [the] next academic year and would not justify firing him,' Tanford says. Terminating his employment via an email was a violation of university policy, Tanford claims, which prohibits firing a tenured professor without cause, and requires a 10-day notice and a hearing before a faculty board of review, if requested by the staff member.
  16. ^ a b c Sandweiss, Ethan (April 1, 2025). "Fired prof accused of research misconduct, FBI involvement unclear". Indiana Public Media.
  17. ^ Elledge, Emerson; Miller, Andrew (April 10, 2025). "Nianli Ma terminated 4 days before FBI searched her and Xiaofeng Wang's homes". Indiana Daily Student.
  18. ^ a b Elledge, Emerson (April 17, 2025). "U.S. attorney argues to keep search warrants for Xiaofeng Wang's home searches sealed". Indiana Daily Student.
  19. ^ Miller, Andrew (April 3, 2025). "IU's investigation on Xiaofeng Wang stems from 2017-18 Chinese grant, document says". Indiana Daily Student.
  20. ^ a b c d Mangan, Dan (March 31, 2025). "Indiana U. fired cybersecurity professor XiaoFeng Wang on day FBI searched his homes: Union". CNBC. Retrieved April 1, 2025.
  21. ^ Shrivastav, Rahul (March 28, 2025). "Dear Professor Wang" – via DocumentCloud. SENT VIA EMAIL ONLY; Dear Professor Wang, I am writing to advise you that Indiana University has decided to terminate your employment effective immediately. ...
  22. ^ "'Both are currently safe' | Lawyers confirm fired IU professor and wife are safe after FBI raids". WTHR 13. April 2, 2025. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  23. ^ a b Sandweiss, Ethan (April 2, 2025). "IU computer science unit speaks about fired professor". Indiana Public Media.
  24. ^ Meador, Marissa; Miller, Andrew (April 2, 2025). "Stanford scholar files motion to unseal warrants used to search homes of Xiaofeng Wang". Indiana Daily Student.
  25. ^ a b Miller, Andrew (April 2, 2025). "IU professor and library analyst face no pending criminal charges, lawyers say". Indiana Daily Student. Retrieved April 2, 2025. Several of Wang's colleagues were unaware that he was under investigation by IU and gave different dates in March of him being placed on 'administrative leave'. Alex Tanford, American Association of University Professors IU Bloomington chapter president, told the IDS on Monday [March 31] that Wang had been placed on an 'interim administrative action' in mid-March, meaning he had been locked out from his office and laptop.
  26. ^ IUB-AAUP Executive Committee: Alex Tanford (Law), President; et al. (March 31, 2025). "Dear Provost Shrivastav" (PDF). American Association of University Professors Indiana University Bloomington Chapter.
  27. ^ a b Miller, Andrew. "Faculty organization alleges IU violated policy in terminating Xiaofeng Wang". Indiana Daily Student.
  28. ^ Forrest, Jack; Elledge, Emerson; Meador, Marissa; Miller, Andrew (April 2, 2025). "IU computer science faculty condemn Xiaofeng Wang's termination in letter". Indiana Daily Student.
  29. ^ a b Sandweiss, Ethan (April 17, 2025). "IU department chair says Wang didn't know about undisclosed Chinese research grant". Indiana Public Media.
  30. ^ Sandweiss, Ethan (April 17, 2025). "Protest groups at IU unite for National Day of Action on higher education". Indiana Public Media.
  31. ^ "Luddy's Wang receives ACM Fellow honor". Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering: News Archive. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
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