Seymour E. Goodman, a professor of international affairs and computing in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, has been reappointed Regents’ Professor by the University System of Georgia (USG) Board of Regents. The title is the highest academic research recognition bestowed by USG, and represents distinction and achievement in teaching and scholarly research. 

Goodman began his academic career with a B.S. degree in City Planning, Civil Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Mathematics from Columbia University in 1965. Soon after this Goodman completed an M.S. in Applied Mechanics and Mathematics at the same university. In 1970, Goodman obtained his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in Applied Mathematics and Mathematical Physics with a dissertation on hydro-kinetic theory of quantum fluids. Despite his research in applied mathematics and mathematical physics, Goodman began teaching computer science at the Virginia School of Engineering.

In 1976 Goodman became a tenured associate professor of applied mathematics and computer science at the University of Virginia. He began to research the global world of computing, specifically, “how countries under different political and economic systems developed, diffused, and absorbed the information technologies.” This led to a two decade-long task of researching these problems within the context of communist countries and garnered Goodman’s first seven-figure grant.

Shortly after the fall of the U.S.S.R., Goodman began studying the national and international dimensions of information security.

“In particular, my students, colleagues, and I thought about international cooperation to deal with cybercrime, what terrorists do in cyberspace, cyber conflict, and actively trying to build information security capacity in the U.S. and developing countries,” said Goodman.

Much of this research was in conjunction with various organizations, such as the International Telecommunication Union and the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.

Goodman came to the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000 as professor of international affairs and computing and as co-director of the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP). He was founding director (now director emeritus) of the Sam Nunn Security Program. Goodman is currently, “looking into developing a program concerned with homeland security including a range of problems confronting democracies that are contending with global terrorism, and resilience in critical infrastructures.”

Goodman has helped to acquire and lead over 250 students and junior faculty from almost 20 different schools and programs at Georgia Tech, as well as four other universities in the greater Atlanta area. Due to the breadth of his work and research, Goodman asserts that, “At one time or another, my studies as a student or my post-1970 positions could have placed me in each of the six colleges at Georgia Tech.”

His work has been supported by more than two dozen funding sources, including multi-year grants from the National Science Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.