Nima Zahadat

Nima Zahadat (Dr. Z) is a Collegiate Professor in the Department of Business Information Technology (BIT) at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cybersecurity, data analytics, programming, ethics, and network systems. Previously, he served as Director of the Master of Science program in Cyber Forensics and High Technology Crimes at the University System of Maryland, designing the program and leading its development and expansion.

Dr. Z has more than two decades of experience spanning higher education, government consulting, cybersecurity, and enterprise information systems. Throughout his career, he has advised and trained personnel from US federal agencies, the US Department of Defense, state governments, and private-sector companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Consulting and training ventures have included cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, digital forensics, database technologies, hacking, programming for weapons systems, information assurance, and secure systems engineering.

Dr. Z’s research interests include digital forensics, forensic credentialing, database systems, data governance, ethics, and information visualization. He is particularly interested in the application of artificial intelligence to digital forensics, cybersecurity, and education.

Dr. Z’s research has been published in Elsevier Journal, ACM SIGITE (now SIGCITE) Journal, ISSA Journal, ISACA Journal, and the Journal of Digital Forensics, Security, and Law among others. He has given presentations at the Techno Security and Digital Forensics conference, the ACM conference, and the ISSA conference.

Dr. Z has developed over 130 distinct university curricula, authored textbooks and technical training materials, and has designed professional education programs for higher education, government, and industry.

Dr. Z holds over 30 professional certifications in cybersecurity and information technology, including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), along with industry credentials spanning networking, operating systems, databases, and cloud computing.

Dr. Z enjoys writing children’s stories, developing apps and websites, reading history, and riding his bicycle for long distances. He is a former trained pilot and a one-time skateboarding enthusiast.

Dr. Z’s online CV is available at https://cv.doctorzahadat.com/ and his portfolio of work is available at https://portfolio.captainnima.com/.