Asscociate Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Thirimachos Bourlai is a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and has been an Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for Cybersecurity and Privacy, both at the University of Georgia. He also serves as an adjunct faculty at West Virginia University in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Engineering and in the School of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology. He is the founder and director of the Multi-Spectral Imagery Lab; a Series Editor of Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications; and an Associate Editor for Elsevier’s Pattern Recognition and the IET Electronics Letters. His professional service includes the Board of Directors of the Document Security Alliance, former Vice President for Education of the IEEE Biometrics Council, and membership in the Academic Research and Innovation Expert Group of the Biometrics Institute. He has published four books in biometrics and identity management, along with numerous conference papers, book chapters, and magazine articles. Bourlai completed a Ph.D. in face recognition and a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Surrey’s CVSSP Group, followed by a second postdoc in thermal imaging and human-based computational physiology in a project between Methodist Hospital and the University of Houston. He joined WVU in 2009, serving in multiple faculty roles through 2017. He has chaired and served on committees for leading biometrics and computer vision conferences and has been invited to present to agencies and organizations including the CIA, NSA, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Army, FBI, Amazon, and several universities. His research centers on technologies for supporting, confirming, and determining human identity in challenging conditions using face images across the imaging spectrum (UV, visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, LWIR), with additional work on iris, fingerprints, ears, tattoos, liveness detection, mobile biometrics, multi-spectral eye and pupil detection, and image restoration for ID document mugshots. He has taught courses including Pattern Recognition/Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Advanced Biometric Systems, Human-Computer Interaction and Programming, Computer Systems Security, and Biomedical Imaging. Education: Ph.D., Face Recognition (Biometrics), Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Surrey, U.K., 2006 M.Sc. in Medical Imaging with Distinction, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Surrey, U.K., 2002 B.S. (M.Eng. Equivalent), Electrical & Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1999 Research Research Interests: Multispectral imaging and biometrics Face-based identity recognition across UV, visible, NIR, SWIR, MWIR, and LWIR spectra Secondary biometrics: iris, fingerprints, ears, and tattoos Liveness detection using face and pupil dynamics Mobile biometrics; multi-spectral eye and pupil detection Matching ID-document mugshots to live face images; image restoration to remove watermark effects Biometric and forensic algorithm development for challenging operational conditions
