Recruiting PhD students for the 2026–27 admissions cycle (Deadline: December 12.) See working together.

Rosanna Bellini

I am an Assistant Professor in Computer Science & Engineering at New York University across the Tandon School of Engineering, which is linked to the Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science.

I study how to make emerging technologies safer for every individual, with a focus on interpersonal abuse, malicious insider attacks, and financial harms. My work sits at the intersection of Computer Security and Privacy (S&P) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to: (a) understand abusive adversaries’ goals, skills, and attack strategies; (b) design socio-technical interventions that help the targets of these attacks; and (c) improve abusability tooling for digital technologies to ensure abuse is harder to enact in the first place.

My approach encompasses both proactive and reactive anti-abuse strategies to benefit academic theory and drive real-world impact. To proactively address technology-enabled abuse, I lead efforts to redesign consumer-facing technologies by detecting areas of misuse, and develop digital tools that intervene with abusers to prevent harmful behavior. I couple these efforts with direct, reactive security services for survivors subject to ongoing attacks, and consult with consumer-facing banking, legal, and security services to offer targeted solutions that mitigate harm. My work has been very generously supported by the National Science Foundation, Volkswagenstiftung Foundation, alongside gifts from Google, JPMorgan Chase, and the Craig Newmark Foundation. My research is also recognized by MIT Media Review 35 Innovators under 35, and has been featured in dozens of media outlets including Forbes, Business Insider, BBC, Science News, and MarketWatch.

I co-lead the NUX Seminar with Vedant Das Swain which is an initiative to bring together like-minded folk across NYU with a passion for human-computer interaction. I also care about ensuring that publishing and conferences are safe contexts for all. As service to my community, I act as a core member of SIGCHI CARES to oversee cases in violation of ACM’s policies governing SIG activities (incl. sexual harassment, abuse, plagiarism, falsification).

Previously, I had a wonderful time as a postdoctoral scholar with Associate Prof. Nicola Dell and Prof. Thomas Ristenpart at Cornell Tech and helped to lead the Clinic to End Tech Abuse as the Director of Research. I also earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science across the pond at Open Lab at Newcastle University in the UK.

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