DIST graduate students interested in Information Assurance and Security who are US citizens are now eligible to apply for a DoD Information Assurance Scholarships. In particular, masters students who just joined the department or joined in Fall, 2004, or will be starting the graduate program in Fall, 2005, are highly encouraged to consider this opportunity. PhD students with IA concentration are also highly encouraged to apply. As a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, DIST can recommend students to the DoD for scholarships.

Visit the LERSAIS website (http://www.sis.pitt.edu/~lersais/DoDIASP/) for more information on the application process.

Note that the application deadline is Feb 10, 2005. We will review the applications and forward them to the DoD with our recommendations on Feb 28.

Endorsement of your application by the department is required, but does not guarantee a scholarship award which will be competitive at a national level. At the same time, given that our security curriculum is certified for all five national standards for IA education (See: http://www.nsa.gov/ia/academia/cnsstesstandards.cfm), we believe nominations from DIST will be strongly considered. (There are only 8 universities in the US with all five certifications and Pitt is the only University in Pennsylvania!)