‘Building researchers is as important to me as building technology,’ says UCD’s Prof Madhusanka Liyanage. Prof Madhusanka Liyanage’s work at University College Dublin (UCD) involves researching how future communication networks can be secured and reinforced. Liyanage’s academic career has taken him across the world, beginning with a degree in electronic and telecommunication engineering at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka, then postgraduate courses in telecommunications engineering at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and ubiquitous networking and computing at Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis in France. Following this, he completed his Doctor of Science in Technology at the University of Oulu in Finland, focusing on scalable security in communication networks. Today, he works as a professor of network security at UCD and leads the university’s NetsLab – which he founded – where he work across the future network security. “A major part of my work is also building research communities. I have supervised and mentored researchers at different career stages, contributed to international standardisation and cybersecurity activities, and worked closely with industry,” he says. “I am particularly interested in ensuring that research does not remain only in academic publications but progresses towards technologies, standards and commercial solutions that can have a real-world impact.” What inspired you to become a researcher? I have loved mathematics since childhood. It was something that came naturally to me, and I particularly enjoyed solving difficult problems and finding answers that were not immediately obvious. One experience that had a strong influence on me was representing Sri Lanka at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Athens in 2004. It gave me the opportunity to meet talented young mathematicians from around the world and experience an international scientific community at a very young age. I have also always loved travelling, meeting people and experiencing different