Brian Neil Levine, Ph.D., professor of computer engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst

After earning a Ph.D. in computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz, family ties brought professor Brian Neil Levine back east to teach computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“My father and siblings are still on the East Coast,” says Levine, “and I knew that UMass Amherst would be a great place to work, do research, and to teach.”

He has focused on privacy, blockchains, cellular networks, and peer-to-peer networking, the technology used on platforms like PayPal and Venmo.

“Computers have been an unending fascination for me since I first was able to use one in elementary school,” Levine says. “I’ve always loved that the sciences provide us insights that are universal.”

He recalls that he went to graduate school not knowing what specific area of computer science he would focus on. After being exposed to different specializations, he figured out that networking was where his interests lay.

“Almost 10 years into my career as a professor,” Levine says, “I learned what I really wanted to do was a field that I now call ‘child rescue,’ which is a combination of privacy — children’s privacy — digital forensics, computer science, criminology, and the law.”

At UMass, Levine co-led the Rescue Lab, the main task of which is to research tools and methods that help rescue children from harm on the internet. He explains that while the work often means new methods for the forensic investigation of internet-based crimes against children, it can also mean providing measurement and analysis of the extent of the crime or the methods of those who would commit these crimes. Internationally, law enforcement has rescued many hundreds of children from exploitation using the tools he and his team have developed. 

Asked how he feels about the effects of his work on the world, Levine does not hesitate. “Very simply,” he says, “I see it contributing by actually considering the balance as part of what I do. The impact of computer science on society is astonishing. But too many computer scientists perform their work to advance science without considering the deleterious impacts and ethical implications.”