Engineering alumnus Joss Nichols, trial attorney for the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Cyber Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, will deliver the 2017 Kurtz Lecture at 5:00 p.m. Thursday, October 5, in C20 Pomerantz Center, sponsored by the UI Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 

The title of his presentation is "How Cybercriminals Steal Stuff and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Efforts to Stop Them."

As a cybercrime prosecutor, Nichols works with other government personnel—such as the FBI and Secret Service—the private sector, academic institutions, and foreign counterparts to investigate and to combat computer and intellectual property crimes worldwide.  This year’s Kurtz Lecture will explore how roles in securing trade secrets and other intellectual property from cybercriminals work together in the age of cyber espionage. 

Nichols is a 2000 graduate of the University of Iowa, with a Bachelor of Science (electrical and computer engineering) and Music (performance). He obtained his law degree from Columbia Law School in 2006.

Funded by an endowment from the Iowa power industry, the annual Kurtz Lecture is named for the late Edwin B. Kurtz, professor and head of the UI Electrical Engineering Department from 1929 to 1960. Kurtz was the architect of the world's first educational television station, directing experimental station W9XK in Iowa City during the 1930s. Kurtz (https://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/alumni/awards/honor-wall/edwin-b-kurtz) is a member of the college's Legacy of Iowa Engineering.