Cybersecurity Pioneer Ali Ghorbani Named to the Order of New Brunswick

Premier Susan Holt announced the 2026 Order of New Brunswick recipients on New Brunswick Day in Grand Falls — and among the ten names is the person most closely tied to the province’s cybersecurity identity: Dr. Ali A. Ghorbani of Fredericton.

The province cited Ghorbani’s “passion for cybersecurity, responsible use of artificial intelligence, the protection of Canadians in a digital age, and his unwavering commitment to science and technology.” Formal investiture is set for Nov. 2 at the legislative assembly in Fredericton.

The researcher who built the institute

Ghorbani arrived in New Brunswick in August 1991 for a PhD in computer science at UNB, joined the Faculty of Computer Science as a professor in 1999, and served as dean from 2008 to 2017. Since 2016 he has held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity — renewed through April 2030 — and founded the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity (CIC), Canada’s first dedicated cybersecurity institute, at UNB.

That institute is the research and talent engine behind Fredericton’s cybersecurity cluster: widely used datasets, graduate pipelines into local employers, and a national reputation that outlasted the CyberNB association that once marketed the brand. The province’s official Order biography even calls him “the father of cybersecurity in New Brunswick.”

Lab to startups to national consortia

Beyond the classroom, Ghorbani’s track record spans labs, companies, and national infrastructure. He established UNB’s Intelligent & Adaptive Systems and Network and Information Security labs in the early 2000s; co-founded startups including Sentrant Security, EyesOver Technologies, and Cydarien Security; and contributed to the success of Q1 Labs’ QRadar platform — a chapter told in Gordon Pitts’s Unicorn in the Woods. He also co-founded the UNB–NRC Cybersecurity Collaboration Consortium and the National Cybersecurity Consortium.

Recent peer recognition includes Lifetime Achievement awards from the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association (2024) and Canada’s Computer Science Association (2025), per the Order biography.

Why it matters for NB tech

Provincial honours usually celebrate culture, sport, or community service. Putting a cybersecurity researcher in the Class of 2026 is a quiet signal that New Brunswick sees digital protection — and the talent pipeline that sustains it — as part of the province’s public identity, not just an economic-development talking point.

Ghorbani joins a 2026 cohort that also includes Patsy Gallant, Brian J. Francis, Émé Lacroix, and six other New Brunswickers. The Order, established in December 2000, invests a maximum of ten people each year; since 2001, 220 people have been invested for dedication and service to the province.

Sources

• 2026 recipients of the Order of New Brunswick — official GNB release; citation language and Nov. 2 investiture
• Order of New Brunswick 2026 recipients — official biography of Dr. Ali A. Ghorbani
• 10 recipients named to the Order of New Brunswick for 2026 — CTV Atlantic report of the announcement
• Bientôt 10 membres de plus au sein de l’Ordre du Nouveau-Brunswick — Acadie Nouvelle coverage including the Nov. 2 ceremony
• Government of Canada renews UNB Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity — CRC renewal through April 2030
• Ali A. Ghorbani faculty page — academic roles, CIC founding, startups, Q1 Labs contribution
• Ali A. Ghorbani on LinkedIn — current roles and professional bio
• Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity — institute home