Computer Science Professor Yoshi Kohno Named 2025 ACM Fellow

Yoshi Kohno, the McDevitt Chair in Computer Science, Ethics, and Society and professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Center for Digital Ethics, has been named a 2025 ACM Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

ACM, an educational and scientific computing society, has been selecting fellows annually since 1993. This year, Kohno is one of 71 new ACM Fellows hailing from 14 countries chosen by their peers for outstanding achievements in the field. In its citation for Kohno, ACM praised him “for leadership in cybersecurity for emerging technologies, security ethics and sociotechnical security.”

Ophir Frieder, a professor in the computer science department, was named an ACM Fellow in 2005.

“For as long as I’ve been a computer scientist, the Association for Computing Machinery has stood out in my mind as one of the leading organizations in computer science,” Kohno said. “It is an incredible honor to be recognized as a fellow. None of this would have been possible were it not for all my amazing mentors, students, collaborators, family and friends.”

Kohno joined Georgetown University College of Arts & Sciences last August and came to DC from the University of Washington. His research spans different areas of security and privacy and has led to significant real-world impacts. 

This semester, Kohno is teaching Computer Security Ethics, where students are studying classical ethical challenges in computer security while gaining practical experience navigating new and emerging challenges. His course builds on his many years navigating ethical challenges in computer security research.

“For the Center for Digital Ethics, Professor Kohno winning this great distinction in our field is a testament to a deeper truth,” said Laura DeNardis, the director of the Center for Digital Ethics. “Intellectual leadership is not only about building technical systems but about building a more ethical and human future. We are so proud and honored to have him as a colleague.” 

Kohno is also studying advances in AI and AI systems, working to proactively identify potential harms these systems can create and to develop mechanisms to mitigate those harms. For the harms that cannot be mitigated, Kohno said, his focus is on helping people understand the risks so they can make informed decisions.

“Professor Kohno has worked on safety in technology for decades — from car and medical device safety to protection from surveillance devices or unwanted facial recognition,” said Lisa Singh, professor and chair in the Department of Computer Science. “He has worked on scrutinizing emerging new technologies to understand their failure points, the impact of those failure points on people and society, and ways to reduce the negative impact of those technologies. He is an exceptional leader in the field.”

ACM has long been in Kohno’s orbit. When he was a high school student, he became involved in the student chapter of ACM at the University of Colorado Boulder. As a college student in 1999, Kohno competed in the World Finals of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, held at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. 

Kohno hopes to use his position as an ACM Fellow to inspire and support others.

“One aspect of this is to continue to do good work that is important and that has the potential to benefit society,” he said. “But there’s another aspect at a personal level, which is to work with, believe in and support junior scholars in the field.”