ProfessorMadhusanka Liyanage

Madhusanka Liyanage is a tenured Professor of Network Security and Ad Astra Fellow at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. He is the Director of the Network Softwarization and Security Laboratory (NetsLab). He is also a Docent/Adjunct Professor of Security in Softwarized Networks at the University of Oulu, Finland, and an Honorary Adjunct Professor at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

His research focuses on trustworthy and resilient future networks, including 5G/6G security, artificial intelligence, explainable AI, federated learning, blockchain, network slicing, privacy, cloud-edge systems and multi-access edge computing. He has more than seventeen years of research experience and has delivered over 30 tutorials at leading IEEE conferences and industry forums.

Professor Liyanage received his BSc degree with First Class Honours in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 2009. He obtained an MEng with an Excellence Award from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, in 2011; an MSc in Ubiquitous Networking and Computing from Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis, France, in 2011; and a Doctor of Science (Technology) in Communications Engineering from the University of Oulu, Finland, in 2016.

Before joining UCD, he worked as a Research Scientist and Project Manager at the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu. He has also held research visits at institutions including INRIA and I3S in France, Data61/CSIRO and the University of New South Wales in Australia, Lancaster University, the University of Oxford, the University of Sydney, Sorbonne University, Swansea University, IIT Roorkee and the University of Palermo. He was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellow at UCD from 2018 to 2020.

His recognitions include the 2020 IEEE ComSoc EMEA Outstanding Young Researcher Award, the 2022 Tom Brazil Excellence in Research Award from the SFI CONNECT Centre, and a Special Commendation as Irish Research Council Early Career Researcher of 2022. He received the Irish Research Council Research Ally Prize in 2021, 2023 and 2024 for his positive impact as a supervisor. He was recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science in 2025, included in the Stanford–Elsevier World’s Top 2% Scientists lists from 2020 to 2025, and listed among Research.com’s Top 1,000 Rising Stars of Science in 2024 and 2025.

Professor Liyanage has co-authored more than 300 publications, including three authored books, four edited Wiley books and two patents. As of July 2026, his work has received more than 25,000 Google Scholar citations, with an h-index of 67 and a SciVal Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 4.03. His research has received multiple Best Paper Awards, including at NGMAST 2015, IEEE CSCN 2017, IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine 2021, ICT Express 2022 and IEEE CNS 2025.

Since 2019, he has contributed to securing approximately €12.48 million in competitive research funding as a project coordinator, alongside approximately €4.41 million as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator across European and national programmes. He is the Coordinator and Principal Investigator of the Horizon Europe SHIELD-6G project and the MSCA Staff Exchanges ENSURE-6G project. He has also led or contributed to major projects including ROBUST-6G, CONFIDENTIAL-6G, SPATIAL, ARMOR, TITAN, CollabXR and COHERENT.

He serves as a Network and Information Security Expert for the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), a Research Ireland Funded Investigator in the CONNECT Research Centre, and a Senior Member of IEEE. He is also an expert reviewer for major international funding bodies, including the European Commission, ANR France, QNRF Qatar, UAEU, FWF Austria, Wellcome Trust UK, Marsden Fund New Zealand, NSF Sri Lanka and NCSTE Kazakhstan.

At UCD, he serves on the Graduate School Board, College Graduate Research Forum, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and the South Asia Regional Strategy Implementation Steering Group. He is also active in international academic service as an associate editor, proposal evaluator, doctoral-thesis examiner, conference organiser, keynote speaker and technical programme committee member.

Media enquiries: Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G and Wireless Networks, Network Security and Privacy, Explainable AI, Federated Learning, Blockchain, Open RAN, Edge Computing and Cybersecurity.