Curriculum vitae

Postdoctoral Researcher

Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy

Human-Centered Security and Privacy

• Critical examination of how generative AI amplifies traditional user scams through enhanced social engineering and automation.
• Preparing a grant proposal to the Volkswagen Foundation (Security and Technology programme) on emerging AI-enabled threat vectors and user protection.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ruhr University Bochum

Cluster of Excellence CASA

• Investigated how language barriers affect email processing and phishing detection through lab-based user studies to inform the design of more inclusive mail interfaces for multilingual users.
• Investigated adoption and governance practices of LLM tools in organisations to identify risks, gaps, and expected practices.
• Actively contributed to the research community through conference and workshop reviewing, workshop organisation, and service roles.
• Supervised and mentored students across seminar, BSc, and MSc levels, providing guidance on research design, academic writing, and critical evaluation throughout their projects.

Doctoral Researcher

The University of Edinburgh

Artificial Intelligence and Applications Institute

• Systematized phishing research, identifying limitations of traditional text representations and gaps in contextual NLP feature usage.
• Designed the Phishing Codebook to derive a novel contextual feature set and created a 503-email high-reliability annotated dataset for downstream phishing mitigation tasks.
• Developed PhishCoder using fine-tuned transformer-based language models for multi-task information extraction via text classification and question answering.
• Applied ensemble clustering, text similarity, and graph-based clustering techniques to identify phishing campaigns from contextual feature representations.
• Collaborated with IT security professionals to design a first-of-its-kind phishing profiling and user-guidance tool for real-world mitigation.

Doctor of Philosophy

The University of Edinburgh

Artificial Intelligence and Applications Institute, School of Informatics

• Thesis: A Collaborative Human-AI Approach to Mitigate Phishing Attacks

Master's and Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research – Thiruvananthapuram

School of Mathematics

• CGPA: 8.52/10 (UK First-Class equivalent)

Teaching Assistant

Human-Computer Interaction; Usable Security and Privacy

Assisted with classroom management and hybrid sessions, contributed to curriculum and coursework design, developed grading rubrics, evaluated student performance, and provided actionable feedback.

Laboratory Demonstrator

Machine Learning Practical; Foundations of Natural Language Processing; Informatics 2D – Reasoning and Agents

Delivered hands-on guidance in practical sessions, clarified complex concepts, and mentored students in applying theoretical knowledge to real-world problems.

Examination Marker

Human-Computer Interaction; Usable Security and Privacy; Discrete Mathematics and Probability

Assessed coursework and examinations, ensured consistent grading against established rubrics, provided constructive feedback, and worked with instructors to refine evaluation standards.

Reviewer Award

Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC)

Received for high-quality peer review.

HIIT Postdoctoral Fellowship in Computer Science

Helsinki Institute for Information Technology

Selected for a fully funded postdoctoral fellowship for up to three years. Offer declined due to timing.

Honourable Mention Award

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Awarded for the paper “Judging Phishing Under Uncertainty: How Do Users Handle Inaccurate Automated Advice?” Awarded to the top 5% of submissions.

Finalist – SICSA Best PhD Dissertation Award

Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)

Selected as a finalist for the 2025 SICSA Best PhD Dissertation Award.

CASA Fundamental Research Project

Cluster of Excellence CASA

Contributor on the project “Improving IT Security and Privacy for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People,” funded for a one-year postdoctoral fellowship.

School of Informatics PhD Scholarship

The University of Edinburgh

Full doctoral scholarship covering tuition fees, programme costs, and a stipend for 3.5 years.

INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE)

Department of Science and Technology, Government of India

Awarded to meritorious students in the top 1% of the Class XII examination, supporting five years of study toward an M.Sc. in Mathematics.