Terry Benzel

Terry V. Benzel is Assistant Director for Special Projects at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of Southern California (USC).She participates in business development, technology transfer and special projects with industrial and academic partners. She is also technical project lead for the Cyber Defense Technology Experimental Research (DETER) testbed and associated Evaluation Methods for Internet Security Technology (EMIST) research projects, jointly funded by NSF and DHS ARPA. The combined project is developing an experimental infrastructure network and scientifically rigorous testing frameworks and methodologies to support the development and demonstration of next-generation information security technologies for cyber defense.

Prior to joining USC ISI, Ms. Benzel was a Division Vice President at Network Associates, Inc. where she was responsible for all aspects of the 125-staff advanced research organization performing government funded R&D for DARPA and other agencies.

Ms. Benzel has served as an advisor to government and industry on R&D strategy and roadmap development, providing guidance to White House Office of Science Technology and Policy, Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, Department Of Defense and industry alliances. She testified before House Committee on Science, “Cyber Security –How Can We Protect American Computer Networks from Attack: The Importance of Research and Development”.

Ms. Benzel holds bachelors and master’s degrees in mathematics from Boston University and an Executive MBA from UCLA.