ICCWS Biographies

Below are the ICCWS Biographies of the Conference and Programme Chairs, Key Note Speakers and Mini-Track Chairs.

Conference and Programme Chairs

Noëlle van der Waag-Cowling is a military science professional with 25 years of experience in the Department of Defence, South Africa and 20 years of experience in South African Higher Education at Stellenbosch University.  She is the co-ordinator of the Cyber Project at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa.  She has served as assistant editor of the journal Scientia Militaria, published in various national and international scientific publications and been a participant in international military education projects.  Noëlle teaches fifth dimension warfare and low intensity conflict in the Department of Military Strategy, Stellenbosch University.

Dr. Louise Leenen is a Principal Researcher in the Cyber Defence research Group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa. She holds a PhD Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Wollongong in Australia. Her research focus is on artificial intelligence applications in the defence environment, cyber defence and ontology development. Before joining the CSIR she worked in the defence industry and has 17 years’ experience as a computer science lecturer both in South Africa and Australia. She is the Chair of the IFIP Working Group 9.10 on ICT in War and Peace.

Key Note Speakers

Sascha Bachmann Assessor Jur, LL.M, LL.D  is a former Army officer (Lieutenant Colonel - German Army Reserve) with operational experience and career professional in law and higher education. In the last 20 years he worked in various capacities and functions in the USA, the Middle East, South Africa and various European countries. Sascha is currently an Associate Professor at Bournemouth University in the UK and has been there since 2013. In November 2017 he was appointed (Professorial) Research Fellow at CEMIS, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University. Sascha was educated in Germany (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München), South Africa (Stellenbosch University and University of Johannesburg) and the United Kingdom (University of Portsmouth). He has been working with NATO, US CENTCOM, US AFRICOM, the Austrian Ministry of Defence, the Swedish Defence University, the Qatari Armed Forces, the Royal Danish Defence College and the South African National Defence Forces on the subjects of Hybrid War, Lawfare and InfoOps. Sascha is a regular contributor to NATO’s Legal Advisor Web (LAWFAS) with his publications often being used as NATO reference documents.

Mini Track Chairs

Brett van Niekerk is a senior lecturer in computer science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He serves as secretary for the International Federation of Information Processing Working Group on ICT in Peace and War, and the co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Cyber Warfare and Terrorism. During the 2016-2018 ISACA South Africa Board Term, he was the Academic Relations Director. He has numerous years of information/cyber-security experience in both academia and industry, and has contributed to the ISO/IEC information security standards. In 2012 he graduated with his PhD focusing on information operations and critical infrastructure protection. He also holds a masters in electronic engineering and is CISM certified.

Evgeny N. Pashentsev, DSc. Is a leading Researcher in the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. He is also a Professor at the Lomonosov Moscow State University and a Director at the International Centre for Social and Political Studies and Consulting. He is a member of the international Advisory Board of Comunicar (Spain) and is on the editorial board of The Journal of Political Marketing (USA). Evgeny is author, co-author and editor of 34 books and more than 100 academic articles published in Russian, English, Spanish, Italian, Serbian and Bulgarian languages. He has presented papers at more than 150 international conferences and seminars for the last 20 years in 18 countries. His areas of research interest include strategic communication, international security, perspective technologies and social development.

Dr Jackie Phahlamohlaka completed an MSc in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Dalhousie University in Canada as well as a PhD in Informatics from the University of Pretoria. He is the Competency Area Manager at the CSIR, South Africa. He completed the Executive National Security Programme (ENSP) from the South African National Defence College in 2007; and has since supervised more than 40 Commandant Research Papers (CRPs) in subsequent Programmes of the College as well as being a regular presenter to the Programmes on the topic of Broadband Access and National Security, with an ICT focus on Cybersecurity. Through this programme, Jackie has become a key Science, Engineering and Technology mentor to Senior Officers and Generals in the South African National Defence Force. His research interests are in ICT and Socio-Economic Development, Web-based Group Support Systems, and most recently, Broadband access and National Security. In these domains, Jackie is extensively published and continues to give regular talks both nationally and internationally.

Trishana Ramluckan has been an academic and researcher in the Information Technology and Governance fields for the past 12 years. She is the Postgraduate Research Facilitator for the College of Law and Management Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She is a member of the IFIP working group on ICT Uses in Peace and War, the Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa and serves as an Academic Advocate for ISACA. She graduated with a Doctor of Administration degree in 2017, specialising in Information Systems & Technology and Public Governance from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her current areas of research are Cyber Law, International Relations and Information Technology Governance.

Dr Joey Jansen van Vuuren is the coordinator of the Cybersecurity Centre of Innovation for the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (South Africa). The Centre focuses on the promotion of research collaboration, cybersecurity education and the exchange of cyber threats in Higher Education and Industry. She spent more than 20 years in academia and research. As the Research Group Leader for Cyber Defence (CSIR) she gave the strategic research direction for the research group that was mainly involved in research for the South African National Defence Force and Government sectors on Cyber Defence. Her research is focused on cybersecurity and government policy. She has presented talks at national and international forums and has also been invited as keynote speaker at international conferences.