Professor Madhusanka Liyanage is a tenured Professor of Network Security and Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin, where he directs the Network Softwarization and Security Laboratory (NetsLab). He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Oulu, Finland, and a Network and Information Security Expert for the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA).
His work focuses on strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure against emerging cyber threats. He leads research on 5G and 6G security, AI-driven attacks and defences, explainable AI, cyber threat intelligence, Open RAN security, zero-trust architectures, federated learning, blockchain and post-quantum security. A central goal is to translate research into deployable cybersecurity solutions, testbeds, threat-detection platforms and practical guidance for industry, government and network operators.
He coordinates the €8 million Horizon Europe SHIELD-6G project, which is developing an intelligent and autonomous security framework for future networks, and contributes to initiatives including ENSURE-6G, ROBUST-6G, CONFIDENTIAL-6G and SPATIAL. Through these programmes, he works with telecom operators, technology companies, regulators and research institutions across Europe to improve cyber resilience and secure AI-enabled networks.
Professor Liyanage is a Senior Member of IEEE, a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and recipient of the IEEE ComSoc EMEA Outstanding Young Researcher Award. He contributes to cybersecurity policy, research strategy and international standardisation, while helping organisations prepare for risks created by AI, quantum technologies and next-generation connectivity.