Casimer DeCusatis
2026 Sigma Xi Fellow
Statement
“Casimer DeCusatis has been a Sigma Xi member since he completed his doctoral studies and began his first job with industry in 1990. Since then, he has remained an active member of the local chapter in the Hudson Valley region of New York State (centered at Vassar College). He has supported Sigma Xi’s involvement in local STEAM programs, including the Dutchess County Regional Science Fair (the longest running all volunteer science fair in the country). In addition to helping judge science fair projects, he established a local science fair in the Arlington School District so that students could qualify for the regional competition. He is also the Founder and Director of Hudson Valley FIRST Lego League robotics tournaments, established in 2005, which engaged Sigma Xi members as mentors and judges for nearly 1,000 students ages 6-14. In 2011 he received the Sigma Xi Walston Chubb Award for Innovation, in recognition of sustained innovative contributions to engineering and technology. He was invited to present the keynote at that year’s Sigma Xi annual meeting. In his current position as Associate Professor at Marist University, he continues to engage local Sigma Xi members in activities such as the annual Marist Computing Conference, which attracts nearly 300 attendees each year."
Biography
Dr. Casimer DeCusatis is an Associate Professor and Director of Cybersecurity Education in the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Marist University, Poughkeepsie, NY where he has served since 2014. His research interests include cybersecurity, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and software-defined data center networks, and he has worked with the Marist-IBM Joint Study, IBM Innovation Incubator, Marist Technology, Research, and Innovation Center (MTRIC), and the Marist University Center for Lifetime Study. He established the university’s accredited major and minor curriculum in cybersecurity, pre-college cybersecurity program, and online adult education cybersecurity certification program. He has also taught a pre-college cybersecurity course for economically disadvantaged students under a New York State grant for the past 5 years. He led the effort for Marist to earn the National Security Agency (NSA) CAE-CD certification for its cybersecurity education and research programs. He is a regular participant in the Dutchess County Cybersecurity Summit and AI Summit meetings and chairs the technical program committee for the annual Marist Computing Conference (MCC). He has supported Marist activities with NYSERNET and the Internet2 consortium. He led development of the Marist education and research Security Operations Center (SOC) established in 2018 and significantly redesigned in 2024. He established the Mid-Hudson IEEE Cybersecurity Ethics Competition and Capstone Project Competition, as well as the Marist chapter of the national cybersecurity honor society Omicron Sigma Sigma. He currently co-hosts the Fox Den monthly cybersecurity podcast. He is the recipient of the 2021 Marist College Faculty Cannavino Library Research Award.
He developed and teaches the online Quantum Computing course at Marist and represents Marist in the Quantum Institute for Cyber Resilience (QuICR), a major federally funded quantum computing and cybersecurity consortium including 16 major universities, 3 U.S. national laboratories, and 3 commercial quantum computing companies, all working in tandem with the Open Cloud Initiative (OCI). He has presented at numerous international conferences, receiving many Best Paper/Presentation awards, and was named a Cisco Distinguished Speaker in 2015. His research includes the National Science Foundation project on advanced networking for cloud security (SecureCloud), and collaborations with the NSF Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN). His work on security policies for IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol has been listed in the MITRE ATT&ACK framework.
An IBM Distinguished Engineer Emeritus, he is also an IBM Master Inventor with over 250 patents and 17 IBM high value (top 10% of the total portfolio) patent awards (significant because IBM has filed more patents than any other company for 20 years, over 6,000 annually). At IBM he served as CTO of Systems Networking Strategic Alliances, developing fiber optic networks, wavelength division multiplexing, and business continuity solutions for Fortune 500 clients. He has been invited to speak at Gartner Group events and was co-leader of the IBM Academy of Technology study Innovation Ecosystems (which involved collaboration with Harvard Business School). Products which he has co-developed have been recognized with 5 Research & Development 100 Awards (“the Oscars of Engineering”, 2000 - 2009) and 3 Photonics Spectra Circle of Excellence Awards (1996 – 2002). He has also served as Adjunct Associate Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY), City Tech Brooklyn and Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York, New Paltz.
He is the recipient of several industry awards, including the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award, the Sigma Xi Walston Chubb Award for Innovation, the EDN Innovator of the Year Award, the Mensa Research Foundation Copper Black Award for Creative Achievement, the Penn State Outstanding Scholar Alumnus Award and Mark Luchinsky Memorial Lecture, and the IEEE/HKN Outstanding Young Electrical Engineer award (including a citation from the President of the United States and an American flag flown in his honor over the U.S. Capitol). He is co-author of more than 200 technical papers, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles, and editor of the Handbook of Fiber Optic Data Communication (now in its 4th edition). He was selected for the 2002 National Academy of Engineering/NSF Frontiers of Engineering program.
Dr. DeCusatis received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.) in 1988 and 1990, respectively, and the B.S. degree magna cum laude in the Engineering Science Honors Program from the Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) in 1986. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, Sigma Xi, Optika (the Optical Society of America), SPIE (the international optical engineering society), the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) and the Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance. He is a member of the Order of the Engineer, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Mensa, and various other professional organizations and honor societies. He is the recipient of the 2018 IEEE Region 1 Award for Leadership & Service (2005), Technical Innovation (2012), and Cybersecurity Education (2018). He is also Founder and Director of Hudson Valley FIRST Lego League robotics competitions which each year offer over 1,000 students (ages 6-14) the opportunity to pursue their interest in the STEAM disciplines. A partial listing of his recent research accomplishments and publications is available from the Marist Innovation Lab.