Professor Bill Caelli FACS, FTICA, MIEEE (Sen) is the Head of the School of Software Engineering and Data Communications, an academic group of some 60 staff and over 1,800 equivalent full-time students, making it one of the largest IT departments at any university in Australia. Immediately prior to this he was Head of the School of Data Communications (1994) which merged with the then School of Computing Science and Software Engineering on 1 March 2002. Prior to this he was the Founding Director (1988) of the Information Security Research Centre (ISRC), at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He was a Founder of ERACOM Pty. Ltd., a major information technology security company with global affiliations and served as its Managing Director and then Technical Director from its commencement in 1979 till mid-1998. The company successfully developed and marketed a range of encryption products and systems aimed at the banking and finance industry, government, health care and related sectors, obtaining broad industry acceptance of its security modules and PC encryption products throughout Australia, Asia and Europe.
It also developed an early range of small, secure computer ( ERA-50, 60,80) computer systems based around the Stanford University network (SUN) computer structures.
On the 25th of November 2000 he was awarded the "Queensland Premier's Individual Contribution Award" for his work in developing the IT&T industry at the Queensland "Asia-Pacific Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards" ceremony. He is the winner of a 1986 AITA award (Australian Information Technology Award) for Achievement in the Information Technology Industry with over 39 years experience in the computer and data communications industry. In 1992 he received the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), based in Vienna, Austria, "Silver Core" Award in recognition of his international contributions to the field of computer and telecommunications security. He has served as a representative of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) to Technical Committee 11 of IFIP, an international committee of experts involved in all aspects of security and privacy in information systems and networks, from 1984 and acted as Chair of that committee from 1988 till 1995. In July 1993 he was declared a "Pioneer of the Computer Industry" in Australia by ComputerWorld, the industry newspaper and in November 1996 was named as a "ComputerWorld Fellow".
In May 2002 he received the prestigious "Kristian Beckman Award" from IFIP's Technical Committee 11 for his contributions to information security on an international basis. He was made a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society in 1982, having been a foundation member of the society, and a Senior Member of the IEEE in 2002. In July 2002 he was awarded the "University of Newcastle Alumni Medal" (Queensland).
In September 2002 he was awarded the "Pearcey Medal" for distinguished lifetime achievement and contribution to the development of IT in Australia. The Pearcey Medal commemorates the work of Trevor Pearcey, the Australian builder of the world's fourth — and Australia's first — electronic computer which ran its first successful program in November 1949.
He was made a Member of the Australian Science Technology and Engineering Council (ASTEC) in August 1995 and served on that Council till its operations were merged with the pertinent Prime Minister's Council in mid-1998. This body, operating under its own Act of the Australian Federal Government (1978), investigated, furnished information to and advised the Australian Federal Government in respect of policy matters relating to science, technology and engineering. It reported directly to the Prime Minister of Australia and then to the pertinent Minister for science and technology. During this time he participated in a major study of education and training needs in the IT industry for the Australian Government. He has also served on Australian Government industry and technology research funding committees (1992-1994) related to support for the information technology and telecommunications industry. With the ISRC he has consulted to major corporate groups in Australia and overseas, including Rand Corporation (USA), Sparkasse Information Zentrum (Germany), Hong Kong Jockey Club (Hong Kong , China) and elsewhere.
During the 1980s he participated in the development of Australia's highly successful, EFTPOS / ATM security standards for the banking, finance and retail industries, with the pertinent technical committee of Standards Australia and through that work also participated in some ISO activities in the information security area internationally.
He received his first degree in Science (Physics) from the University of Newcastle (New South Wales, Australia) in 1966 following some years of experience in computer programming and systems analysis for the Broken Hill Pty Ltd (BHP), one of Australia's largest private companies. In this role he worked with early IBM computer systems (1401, 1620, 650) and punched card based equipment in the development of commercial and technical applications for payroll, product and steel mill scheduling and related systems in the early 1960's.
In 1966 he joined the Australian National University (ANU) to work on computer systems related to high speed data acquisition and data storage for the Department of Nuclear Physics. During this time he designed and wrote a real-time, operating system for the IBM 1800 computer system, which included support for an early high speed, multi-host local computer network. In 1972 he received his degree as a Doctor of Philosophy from the ANU. Professor Caelli joined Hewlett-Packard (Australia) Pty Ltd in 1972 as a Senior Computer Consultant with particular responsibility for the newly announced HP-3000 computer system as well as data networking. His major work here involved the creation of data base systems (IMAGE) and work with the Codasyl model for data bases as well as in data communications and networks.
In 1973 he joined Control Data (Australia) Pty Ltd to further work on large scale data base systems and data networks and while with CDA became interested in and involved with the problems of data security and cryptography. He served on a number of CDC Corporate committees in the USA, in Minneapolis, Minnesota and in Sunnyvale, California related to advanced data base systems and network security, as well as working with appropriate data base standards development groups and with Control Data's Australian Federal Government marketing group. He also held both Management (Professional Services) and Marketing (Federal Government) positions within the company during that period.
Professor Caelli has numerous research and technical publications, including technical papers and books, in the area of information security and associated legal, political and social matters as well as in the economic, political and policy aspects of development of the IT industry. His first book on this topic, The Microcomputer Revolution was published by the Australian Computer Society in 1979. He also co-authored three further books on information security in the 1990s. He currently supervises some 8 postgraduate, research students in these areas. His research interests lie in areas of cryptology, secure computer systems and networks and in social, political and legal implications of information security and assurance in general along with the overall problems associated with education and training in the area.
Information Security: Dictionary of Concepts, Standards and Terms 2nd Ed.