Prof. Kester Quist-Aphetsi
Prof. Kester Quist-Aphetsi is a global Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence expert, consultant, scientist, engineer and a technologist. He is a member of DEFCON, the world largest hacker group. He has led several scientific research and developments projects and organized top scientific conferences in the sector of artificial intelligence, cyber security, Data science etc. He has worked, participated, and chaired security activities in countries such as USA, Israel, France, UK, Canada, Spain, India, Malaysia, South Africa etc.
He is part of United Nations Experts on Artificial Intelligence currently working on AI Diagnostics in Medicine and AI in Emerging Technologies and MIT Technology Review Global Panel member. He is a member of United Nations FG-AI4H Ad-hoc Group on digital technologies for COVID health emergency (AHG-DT4HE) and ITU-T Focus Group of Experts on Environmental Efficiency for Artificial Intelligence and other Emerging Technologies (FG-AI4EE). He is member of ITU UN Focus Group experts on “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) for Digital Agriculture” (FG-AI4A). He is also a member of ACM Elite Future Computing Academy Global Members selected to shape the future of computing with works in AI.
He is a specialist in cybersecurity, cryptography, computational intelligence, and signal processing. He has developed various grade encryption protocols, deep and dark web applications, and has been invited to top National Cyber Security Programs in countries such as Israel, United States, China, Russia, Canada, United Kingdom etc.
He has given talks and facilitated Cyber Security Training for members of national and international security agencies including the Military, National Security, Criminal Investigative Department members of the police etc. He is a member of IEEE Blockchain Technical Experts and a member of the IEEE Computer Society Special Technical Community on Blockchain and a member of IEEE Standards Committee on development of industrial security standards.
He is a member of Open Web Application Security Project(OWASP) in Maryland USA.OWASP is dedicated to helping government agencies and organizations understand and improve the security of their web applications and web services.
He is Associate Editor of International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies Inderscience Publishers in Switzerland. He served as a Judge (IEEE Computer society selected Judge, USA.) for Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor Society Awards: This is a global award given to undergraduate and postgraduate students with a minimum GPA of 3.0 out of a possible 4.0 and have extensively contributed to computing field globally.
He is the Acting Dean for FoCIS at the Ghana Communications Technology University. He is a security researcher and supervising PhD research projects with the LabSTICC IRIS Team « Pôle d’Excellence Cyber ».The team is deeply involved in several projects related to Cyber Security: the Chair of Naval Cyber Defense, the Cyber SSI CPER project, the joint research laboratory with Airbus Defense & Space etc.
He was the lead team member for cyber security and defense at GTUC of the Symposium to Introduce the Participants of the AFRICA ENDEAVOUR (AE) to GTUC Site Cyber Security Technologies, a United States Government Department of Defense sponsored exercise aimed at developing workable concepts for harmonizing Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Information Systems (C4IS) capability among African Armed Forces.
He is a Laureate of the Millennium Excellence Awards and the winner of the President’s Outstanding Youth Prize for Excellence in Technology. He is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Fellow. The IETF Fellowship was awarded to him by Internet Society (ISOC) to contribute his technical skills and experience to the work of the IETF in Canada and to promote IETF activities in Africa.
IETF is the world’s premier Internet standards setting organization. He was elevated and awarded a Senior Member of IEEE, The institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. He was also awarded a Senior Member of ACM, the Association of Computing Machinery, USA. ACM is the highest computing body in the world that awards the Alan Turing Awards (The Nobel Prize in computing). He is a member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research.
He is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and an active member of IEEE Experts in Technology and Policy with specializations in internet governance, cybersecurity, and privacy. He was a Scientific Research Ambassador to World Scientific Forum.
He had his PhD in Computer Science and Applications with distinction from Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest in France, Master of Software Engineering degree from the Open University Malaysia with thesis area in Information Security.
He obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and acquired Professional Diploma certification with Distinction in Business Management and Administration from the Institute of Commercial Management, United Kingdom as well as Diploma in Project Management. He was Global award (Gold) winner 2010 in Canada Toronto, of the NSBEs’ Consulting Design Olympiad and has been recognized as a Global Consulting Design Engineer.
He has won Best Scientific Paper Award in Canada by IEEE 15th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications. He was awarded the French government Scholarship and has been awarded research grants in France at the Center of Excellence in Cyber Security.
He has also been awarded as the Best Lecturer for Research, Publications and scholarship at the Ghana Technology University College. He has served as a Scientific Judge for Postgraduate Research Competition in Massachusetts, USA.
He is a member of the Executive Council of Internet Society and the National Chair for Policy and Research, Internet Society (ISOC) Ghana Chapter, a world-renowned body that provides international leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. He is an Ambassador for ACM- Association of Computing Machinery, USA. He is the Chairman of the Executive Council of the Chartered ACM- Association of Computing Machinery Chapter of ACM at CRITAC.
He is the chairman of the governing council for the Centre for Research, Information Technology and Advanced Computing-CRITAC. He also served on scientific Technical committees for international conferences, standard committees of IEEE in formulation of global standards, UK Chartered Institute of IT British Computer Society-BCS-UK Forensics group, Institute of Engineering and Technology-IET UK, as well as consulted for Governments on policy documents.
He is a member of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Team of Experts as a consultant and he partake in national, European Commission supported projects, and Inter governmental research projects and also to ensure overall scientific quality in latest scientific and technological developments.
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology is the first and widest European intergovernmental network for coordination of nationally funded research activities. He is a Scientific Editorial Board Member, on Computer and Information Engineering, of the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, WASET, USA
He has worked in various capacities as a lecturer (national and international universities) and Head of Digital Forensics Department, Head of Computer science department, consultant to national and international reputable organizations, and served as a presenter at seminars and workshops both in the academic and social environment. He teaches short courses such as project management, scientific programming, software development etc. and had exposure to social researching as a freelance journalist and a social commentator on current affairs, scientific, economic and socio-political issues on radio, TV and in newspaper.
He has supervised research works at both undergraduate and postgraduate level with national and international project/thesis/research supervision experience. He is a scientific journal editor, author, reviewer and advisor of high standard scientific international Journals, member and consultant to international scientific organizations such as IEEE-USA, ACM, CSIEEE, IET-UK, BCS Technology strategic board -UK etc.
He was chair at Cambridge University, UK for a Scientific Conference on Mathematical and Simulation, 2015. Chair of European Conference on Computer Modeling and Simulation: Image Processing and Security session in 2013, Manchester and other IEEE, ACM and Springer conferences in countries like Spain, India etc. and have several global, international and institutional recognition and awards to that effect. He has publications in Journals, books, book and conferences.
He has delivered talks on security in the Privacy, Defense and Cyber warfare in different countries. He is a research scientist, and he is an associate member and a research scientist at LAB-STICC UMR 6285, a CNRS-Centre for National and Scientific research Laboratory in France at the CID pole and the division of SFIIS (SécuritéFiabilité et Intégrité de l’Information et des Systèmes). He is the Lead Scientist for the Directorate of Information Assurance at CRITAC.