School of Computer and Cyber Sciences faculty receive leadership appointments

Congratulations to School of Computer and Cyber Sciences faculty members, Dr. Gagan Agrawal and Dr. Michael Nowatkowski on their recent leadership appointments.

Dr. Gagan Agrawal has accepted the position of Interim Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. In this role, Agrawal will be responsible for building continued research momentum, establishing new graduate programs and sustaining and developing current graduate programs in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences. Additionally, Agrawal will be responsible for building and enhancing research relationships with existing partners of the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, including the Georgia Cyber Center, Savannah River National Laboratory, DoD agencies at Fort Gordon and other Augusta University colleges.

Prior to joining the Augusta University team, Agrawal was a professor of computer science at Ohio State University. In that role, he served as his department’s graduate studies committee chair for 15 years, managing MS and PhD programs with combined enrollments of nearly 300. Agrawal’s research has been strongly funded by both NSF and DOE, including winning the prestigious NSF Career Award.

Dr. Michael Nowatkowski has accepted the position of Head of the Cyber Program of Study in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences. In this role, Nowatkowski will be responsible for overseeing the cybersecurity education and scholarship opportunities for School of Computer and Cyber Sciences students, and serving as the head of our DHS/NSA designated Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. This includes guiding our cybersecurity curriculum development, leading scholarship opportunities and identifying research collaborations within Augusta University, the Augusta community and the region as a whole.

Prior to joining the Augusta University team, Nowatkowski served in the United States Army for 26 years as a Signal Corps Officer and a Cyber Operations Officer. During his Army career, he served in a variety of positions at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Since joining Augusta University in 2016, Nowatkowski has made significant contributions to our cybersecurity education program, including developing our newest degree program, Cybersecurity Engineering.

“The new appointments of Dr. Agrawal and Dr. Nowatkowski amplify our momentum in research and graduate education, and uphold our commitment to cyber education and scholarship,” says School of Computer and Cyber Sciences Dean Alex Schwarzmann. “I look forward to working with Gagan and Michael in their expanded leadership positions.”