Emil Stefanov

Emil Plamenov Stefanov Obituary
Emil Plamenov Stefanov, 26

Emil Plamenov Stefanov, 26, of West Lafayette, Indiana, died March 27, 2014 at his home in Hayward, California.

He was born April 7th, 1987, in Sofia, Bulgaria to Plamen and Paola (Blagoeva) Stefanov.

Emil graduated from West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School in 2005. He was a leader on the school's robotics team. At Purdue University, he earned his Bachelor of Science in 2009 with three distinct majors, honors computer science, mathematics, and computer science mathematics. He went on to research security, privacy, and cryptography at University of California, Berkeley where he was awarded Doctorate of Computer Science.

During his career, Emil won awards for academic papers, academic excellence, and for programming and website design. He earned multiple scholarships and NSF and NDSEG graduate research fellowships. He taught computer security at UC Berkeley and worked as a researcher and software developer at Motorola, NVIDIA, Microsoft, RSA Laboratories, and Purdue. Emil spoke at conferences and held patents in computer security. His work was cited by the press. He produced privacy-preserving software.

In his spare time, Emil created a variety of personal software projects and donated them to the public. He contributed to his high school robotics team by returning as a mentor. He enjoyed travel, kayaking, movies, and jetskis.

He is survived by his loving parents Plamen and Paola Stefanov of West Lafayette; maternal grandparents Nadezhda Blagoeva and Kiril Blagoev; and paternal grandparents, Anna Stefanova and Dimitar Stefanov.

Emil was brilliant, motivated, and he inspired his colleagues. He was loved and will be missed.

"Emil has enlightened my life, both with his friendly and engaging personality, and his technical brilliance in the course of our interactions during his Purdue days." - Mikhail Atallah, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University.

A memorial fund is being created for a scholarship in computer science. Condolences may be sent to 2813 Barlow St, West Lafayette, IN 47906.



Published in the Journal & Courier from Apr. 3 to Apr. 4, 2014

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