In May of 1998, Purdue chartered CERIAS -- the Center of Education and Research In Information Assurance and Security -- as a campus-wide, multidisciplinary center for the new (at the time) field of cybersecurity. CERIAS grew out of the COAST Laboratory in the CS department. Our original core of a half-dozen faculty spanned several of the departments and colleges at Purdue and thus warranted a university-level institute.

As part of its commitment to the new center, Purdue University renovated most of the 2nd floor of the Recitation Building on the central campus for CERIAS. The 2nd floor was originally classrooms. We moved into the redone space in early 1999. The space involved a conference room, a small library, a small kitchen and lounge, offices for 10 faculty and staff, and a half-dozen shared offices for grad students. We also had two dedicated rooms on the 4th floor -- one as a protected machine room, and one as a lab.

The space in REC has served us well since then. We were located near the CS, ECE, and CNIT departments, in a building with great character, including flooring made from birds-eye maple planks. We also had to cope with some of the idiosyncrasies of an older building, including cranky HVAC and leaky pipes. (Recitation was originally completed in 1923.) CERIAS grew into a world-renowned entity with over 150 associated faculty across campus and many hundreds of their students.

Over the last few years in particular, Purdue overall has prospered, with increasing prestige and growing enrollment. Last year, Purdue had over 50,000 students enrolled at the main campus! Having frozen tuition for a decade has undoubtedly helped to make a Purdue education even more attractive, despite the increasingly-rigorous admission standards. There has been an associated boom in new buildings -- with over two dozen new dormitories, laboratories, and co-working space for collaborations with companies and national labs. This has included construction of the Discovery Park District.

Last year, as part of a master planning process, university administration decreed some reorganization. Many administrative and academic programs are moving to accomodate growth, move related groups near each other, and make better use of space. That includes CERIAS!

As of August 15, we are bidding adieu to Recitation. For the following 4 months we will be virtual as our new "galactic headquarters" is being finished. Meanwhile, our space in Recitation will be renovated info offices and meeting space for the Dean of Students

In January, we will be moving into our new offices and lab space on the 3rd floor of the Convergence Center on campus. Convergence is part of the public-private partnerships idea that Purdue has been promoting over the last few years. It is a building owned and operated by a private company, located on the university and housing several campus departments as well as industry offices. It was completed in 2020 and presents exciting new possibilities for our next 25 years.

Our new space will be bright and airy, with lots of windows. We'll have more offices, lots of work spaces for students, several labs, and multiple meeting rooms. We'll also have dedicated space for co-location of researchers of some CERIAS partners (with Sandia National Labs the first such partner).

If you want to visit us between August 15 and January 15, let us know and we'll find a room on campus to meet with you. After the 15th, come visit us at our new offices!

Our new address will be:

During and after the transition we expect our phone numbers and email addresses to be unchanged. Our web pages will continue to be active. Our phones will forward to wherever we are during the build-out phase, so you will be able to reach us as always.

While we're at it, mark your calendars for March 28 & 29 --- the annual CERIAS Symposium. We're celebrating our 25th anniversary and you are all invited!