Dr Maher Salem

Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange Office
Programme Leader
Associate Professor, Cybersecurity Programme

Academic Qualifications

Ph.D. in Cybersecurity (with Honors), University of Kassel, Germany (2014)
M.Sc. in Computer Engineering, University of Duisburg–Essen, Germany (2006)
B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology (2002)
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), evidencing leadership in learning and teaching
Professional memberships: BCS, ACM, SRHE, and King’s CERC

Professional Experience

Dr. Maher Salem is a senior academic leader and cybersecurity expert with more than twenty years of experience in research strategy, knowledge exchange, and industry-focused innovation. He serves as Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange and Associate Professor of Cybersecurity at Oryx University, as well as Visiting Professor at King’s College London. In these roles, he has shaped institutional priorities in research governance, employability, and strategic industry engagement. Dr. Salem has established strong partnerships across academia, government, and global industry, leading high-impact initiatives such as a national cybersecurity training programme and delivering a keynote address to the Huawei Executive Board at GISEC 2025.
His professional standing is reflected in his memberships with the British Computer Society (BCS), ACM, SRHE, King’s Computing Education Research Centre (CERC), King’s Academy, and the King’s Cybersecurity Group, alongside his role as a cybersecurity expert contributor for Al Arabiya News (UK). A committed mentor and researcher, he has supervised more than 65 interdisciplinary student projects, supported early-career academics in grant development and knowledge exchange, and contributes to the academic community as a reviewer for Computers & Security and the Journal of Information Security and Applications.

Research Interests

Selected Publications

Salem, M. (2025). Redefining Threat Intelligence: How LLMs Revolutionize Malware Detection . The 5th International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies (ICECET) – Just Accepted
Al-Tamimi, A.-K., Salem, M., et al. “Challenges of Integrating Assistive Technologies and Robots with Embodied Intelligence in the Homes of Older People Living with Frailty.” Applied Sciences, 2025.
Salem, M. and Mrian, M. “AI-Driven Penetration Testing: Automating Exploits with LLMs and Metasploit.” International Conference on New Trends in Computing Sciences (ICTCS), 2025.
Salem, M., et al. “Navigating Challenges in Online Cybersecurity Education: Insights from Postgraduate Students.” ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 2024.
Salem, M. and A. -K. Al-Tamimi, "A Novel Threat Intelligence Detection Model Using Neural Networks," in IEEE Access, vol. 10, pp. 131229-131245, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3229495