Dr. Scherlis is a Professor in the School of Computer Science at CMU. He is director of CMU's Institute for Software Research and founding director of CMU’s PhD Program in Software Engineering. Dr. Scherlis was lead Principal Investigator of the recently completed High Dependability Computing Project, in which CMU led five universities to help NASA address long-term software dependability challenges. He co-founded SureLogic Inc. to commercialize technology resulting from his research, which focuses on software assurance and evolution and technology to support software teams.

Dr. Scherlis has been an adviser to major IT companies. He has more than 70 scientific publications, and has led or participated in national studies related to cybersecurity, e-government, crisis response, analyst information management, Department of Defense software management, and health care informatics infrastructure. He has testified before Congress on innovation and information technology, and, previously, on roles for a Federal CIO. Dr. Scherlis interrupted his career at CMU to serve at DARPA for six years, departing in 1993 as senior executive responsible for research and strategy in computer security, information infrastructure, and other topics. He joined the CMU faculty after completing a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University, a year at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) as a John Knox Fellow, and an A.B. at Harvard University.

Dr. Scherlis was recently interviewed by Computerworld Magazine regarding the future of software.