Simson L. Garfinkel

Simson Garfinkel is the Chief Scientist of BasisTech, a technology accelerator in Somerville, MA. He is currently working on projects at the intersection of AI, privacy, data management and digital forensics. He holds seven US patents and has published dozens of research articles in computer security and digital forensics. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Garfinkel is the author or co-author of eighteen books on computing. His most recent book is Differential Privacy, which explains the revolutionary (and controversial) new approach for protecting privacy in statistical databases. He is also the co-author of Law and Privacy for the Quantum Age, which discusses quantum computing, quantum cryptography and quantum sensing. His 2000 book Database Nation explored privacy issues, and his book Practical UNIX and Internet Security sold more than 250,000 copies. He is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and has won national the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for his commentary on computer security.

Garfinkel received three Bachelor of Science degrees from MIT in 1987, a Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT in 2005.