Russell successfully defended his doctoral thesis in June, 2019. He was advised by Dr. Douglas Reeves, and co-advised by Dr. Dutta since his Oral Preliminary exam. His primary work has been in security of Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), the routing workhorse of the Internet. Russell examined several key vulnerabilities of OSPF, and conceived and demonstrated various security mechanisms at various levels, which together make for comprehensive security against OSPF attackers. He goes on to a research job with the US government in Maryland.