Award Recipients

Daniel Manson

Meritorious Service Award

Dan Manson has been a national force in the awareness and development of Cyber Security competitions. His tireless efforts in that respect have led to a quantum expansion in the number of new students in the pipeline. He has supported every level of competitions from the simple K-5 games to the advanced competitions at the University level!

He is almost single handedly responsible for driving educational efforts down into K-12, where the education process must start and in that respect, he has essentially reshaped the face of cybersecurity education. It is his dream in retirement from Cal Poly to make Cyber Security Competitions as important in the schools as Varsity Sports and with all the amazing contacts and drive he possessed I believe our future Cyber Security workforce will call him the Father of the sport of Cyber Security! Check out his YouTube Color Commentary on the Cyber Security Competitions: The CyberFed Show!

Dr. Dan Manson, CISSP, is a Professor and Department Chair in Computer Information Systems at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Dr. Manson has taught Information Systems Auditing, Internet Security and Computer Forensics in the College of Business Administration Computer Information Systems undergraduate and Master of Science in Information Systems Auditing programs. From September 2003 to March 2004 and January to December 2006, Dr. Manson served as the campus Information Security Officer for Cal Poly Pomona.

Dr. Manson led the effort for Cal Poly Pomona to be designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education in 2005 and again in 2008. Dr. Manson is in charge of the Western Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and California Cyber Challenge as part of the United States Cyber Challenge.

Dan has been co-Principal Investigator on three National Science Foundation grants to support workforce, curriculum and professional development in cyber security, including the current CyberWatch West NSF ATE Regional Center grant. Dan serves on the Academic Relations Committee for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association and is a past president of the Southern California High Technology Crime Investigation Association.