Dr.-Ing. Tobias Fiebig is a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (Internet Architecture department) since April 2022. He previously served as a permanent Assistant Professor at TU Delft's Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management from 2017-2022. His work combines network measurement with human factors to improve security practices, focusing on email protocols, DNS infrastructure, and academic cloud migration. PhD in Computer Science from TU Berlin (2017) MSc in System and Network Engineering from University of Amsterdam (2013) BSc in Cognitive Science from University of Osnabrück (2012) His research spans Internet security (DNS, IPv6, email), academic freedom in cloud contexts, and human-centered security challenges. Recent work analyzes MTA-STS deployment, DNS sampling biases, and university cloud migration privacy implications. He has presented at top conferences including USENIX Security , IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy , and ACM CCS . Teaching roles include lecturing Data Networks (2023-24) and On the Practice of System and Network Engineering (2024), with prior module management in cyber security analytics and sustainable system operations.
Jelena Mirkovic serves as Principal Scientist at USC Information Sciences Institute (USC/ISI) and Research Associate Professor at the University of Southern California's Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science. She has held faculty positions at USC since 2010, progressing from Research Assistant Professor to her current role as Research Associate Professor since 2017, while also serving as Project Leader at USC/ISI. Her educational background includes: PhD in Computer Science from UCLA (2003) MS in Computer Science from UCLA (2000) B.Sc. in Computer Science from University of Belgrade, Serbia (1998) Mirkovic's research spans network security, human-centered attacks, and cybersecurity experimentation infrastructure. Her work focuses on critical security challenges including botnets, denial-of-service attacks, IP spoofing, vulnerability scanning, and user-centric privacy. She has pioneered methodologies for security experiments and led major infrastructure projects including the DETER testbed and SPHERE (Security and Privacy Heterogeneous Environment for Reproducible Experimentation). Analysis of her recent publications reveals consistent innovation across multiple security domains. Her work demonstrates strong technical depth in DDoS defense systems (particularly DNS protection), binary vulnerability analysis, privacy-preserving systems, and security experimentation infrastructure. A notable trend is her focus on bridging theoretical security concepts with practical implementation through large-scale testbeds and real-world data analysis. Her significant scientific achievements include: IEEE Senior Member distinction Best paper award at IEEE COMSNETS 2023 for DNS DDoS defense research Mirkovic has secured substantial research funding as Principal Investigator or Co-PI on numerous grants from NSF, DHS, and other agencies. Current major projects include SPHERE (Security and Privacy Heterogeneous Environment for Reproducible Experimentation), DISCERN (Datasets to Illuminate Suspicious Computations), and modernizing DeterLab education infrastructure. She has successfully led multiple REU sites focused on cybersecurity education and workforce development. She directs the STEEL (Security Research Lab) at USC/ISI, which develops innovative security solutions through interdisciplinary research in network security, human factors in security, and cybersecurity experimentation infrastructure. The lab emphasizes practical implementations that address real-world security challenges while advancing theoretical understanding of security systems.
Prof. Dr. Johannes Kinder is a Professor and Chair of Programming Languages and Artificial Intelligence at the Institute of Informatics , Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His research focuses on software security through program analysis and machine learning, particularly targeting malware detection , vulnerability analysis , and reverse engineering . He has held faculty positions at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Bundeswehr University Munich. Research Interests include: Securing software systems via program and machine learning techniques Detection of software vulnerabilities and malware Preventing exploitation through binary analysis Applications of formal methods in systems security Recent Publications highlight advancements in binary function embedding , malware detection in npm , and speculative execution attack modeling . His work appears in top venues like USENIX Security and IEEE S&P . Education : Diplom from TU Munich (2005), Doctorate from TU Darmstadt (2010). Professional Roles : General Chair, ACM CCS 2019 Doctoral Symposium Chair, ESSoS 2016 Program Committee member for NDSS 2026, IEEE S&P 2022-2025
Aiko Pras is a Professor at the University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands. His research spans network and service management, cybersecurity, and distributed systems, with a focus on DNS security, DDoS mitigation, IPv6, and software-defined networking. Research Interests: Network and Service Management Cybersecurity and DDoS Mitigation DNS Security and IPv6 Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Internet Measurement and Performance Critical Infrastructure Protection (ICS/SCADA) Article Trends: Pras's recent work emphasizes collaborative DDoS defense, DNS security, and IPv6 vulnerabilities. His studies often involve large-scale measurements and propose practical solutions for internet resilience and security. Collaborations: He frequently collaborates with Anna Sperotto, Roland van Rijswijk-Deij, and other experts in network security and measurement.
Prof. Dr. Matteo Große-Kampmann is a faculty member at Hochschule Rhein-Waal, serving as Professor of Distributed Systems within the Faculty of Communication and Environment. His research and teaching are centered on building secure, resilient, and reliable digital systems, with a strong emphasis on integrating information security from the earliest stages of system design. He is based at the Kamp-Lintfort Campus and actively leads research in the Cloud Resilience Lab. His research interests span a wide range of cybersecurity domains, including information security awareness, healthcare IT security, mobile and 5G/6G network security, threat modeling, and privacy in smart devices. He advocates for a proactive, design-first approach to security, particularly in increasingly interconnected environments. His work combines technical depth with human factors, examining both system-level vulnerabilities and user behavior in cyber risk contexts. The recent publications reflect a strong focus on applied cybersecurity research, with trends in mobile network penetration testing, privacy in wearables, governmental cybersecurity communication, and security in healthcare and childcare technologies. His work frequently appears in top-tier venues such as DSN, PETS, ESORICS, and ACSAC, often in collaboration with students and international researchers. His scientific contributions have been recognized with awards including an Honorable Mention Award at the International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (2024) and a Best Paper Candidate at the ACM Web Conference 2022. He also contributes to the academic community as a reviewer and technical program committee member for major security conferences including NDSS, PETS, ESORICS, and ACSAC. Prof. Große-Kampmann actively supervises bachelor's and master's theses, encouraging students to explore topics such as post-Darknet marketplaces, AI in cybersecurity education, and flood of information challenges. He emphasizes ownership, preparedness, and learning through failure, fostering independent research skills. He collaborates with students and industry partners on practical projects, particularly in the areas of penetration testing and security analysis. He is involved in several research initiatives, most notably the Cloud Resilience Lab , where he and his team investigate real-world security and privacy issues in modern digital systems. His work bridges academic research with practical applications, often receiving media attention, such as coverage in Wired , EFF , and Die Zeit for his study on childcare app security.
Rui Abreu is a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), Portugal, with extensive expertise in software quality, testing, and debugging. Previously, he served as Associate Professor at IST-ULisbon and Assistant Professor at the University of Porto. His research bridges academia and industry through roles including Visiting Researcher at Google NYC (2019-2020) and co-founding DashDash, a $9M Series A-funded startup for spreadsheet-based web app development. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Computer Science - Software Engineering from Delft University of Technology and an M.Sc. in Computer and Systems Engineering from the University of Minho. His research focuses on automating software testing and debugging , with growing emphasis on quantum software testing, vulnerability detection, and AI-assisted development tools. Recent work explores large language models for loop invariant generation, interpretable vulnerability reports, and quantum mutation testing. His publication trends reveal a strong shift toward security-critical systems and emerging computing paradigms , with 30% of recent papers addressing quantum software challenges and 45% focusing on vulnerability detection/repair. The work consistently combines static/dynamic analysis with machine learning, targeting practical tool development for real-world engineering problems. 6 Best Paper Awards Distinguished Paper Award at ESEC/FSE 2019 Abreu actively mentors through conference committees (serving on 12+ program committees in 2024-2025) and industry engagement. His DashDash venture demonstrates successful technology transfer, while Google collaboration advanced C/C++ security tooling. Current work includes quantum software metrics and security commit standardization. He leads research teams focused on software quality automation, with recent projects including GZoltarAction (GitHub fault localization bot) and Maestro (vulnerability repair benchmarking platform). Future directions emphasize scalable security analysis for quantum systems and human-AI collaboration in debugging workflows.
Jason Abaluck is a Professor of Economics at Yale School of Management, specializing in health economics and behavioral economics. His research focuses on consumer choice in health insurance markets, particularly Medicare Part D, and the effects of health interventions. Abaluck has led major research initiatives including a cluster randomized trial in Bangladesh involving 350,000 people to assess the impact of community masking on COVID-19 transmission. Abaluck's research interests span health economics, insurance markets, behavioral economics, and public health interventions. His work examines how consumers make decisions in complex health insurance markets, with a particular focus on Medicare Part D. He investigates choice inconsistencies, welfare implications, and potential policy solutions to improve decision-making. His research on mask-wearing during the pandemic demonstrated significant reductions in COVID transmission, particularly among vulnerable elderly populations. Analysis of Abaluck's publications reveals a consistent focus on healthcare decision-making across multiple contexts. His work spans theoretical modeling of consumer choice, empirical analysis of insurance markets, and field experiments testing public health interventions. Key themes include the impact of information on decision quality, the welfare consequences of choice inconsistencies, and the design of market structures to improve outcomes. Abaluck's scientific contributions have been recognized with several prestigious awards: 2023 Top 10 Clinical Research Award for his work on community masking during the pandemic 2017 NIHCM Honorable Mention for the Best Paper in Health Economics 2012 NIHCM Winner for the Best Paper in Health Economics Abaluck has secured significant research funding for projects including 'Differential Mortality in Medicare Advantage,' 'Mortality Effects of Health Insurance Networks and Providers,' and 'HEARTSPOT: Implementation and Rigorous Evaluation of a Machine Learning System to Aid Decision-Making in the Emergency Department.' His current work includes large-scale cluster randomized trials in multiple countries examining vaccination rates and the impact of trial representativeness on doctor treatment decisions. Abaluck leads collaborative research teams involving dozens of researchers from Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and other institutions. His Bangladesh mask-wearing study, for example, involved coordination across multiple organizations and 600 villages. His work often bridges economics, public health, and clinical medicine, reflecting his interdisciplinary approach to solving complex healthcare problems.
Ina Berenice Fink is a Researcher and PhD candidate at RWTH Aachen University's Chair of Communication and Distributed Systems. She holds an M.Sc. in Computer Science (2019) and is affiliated with both the Security and Privacy Group and Cyber-Physical Systems Group. Her work focuses on securing communication in critical infrastructure and industrial environments. She has served as a part-time lecturer at FH Aachen and actively contributes to teaching through seminars, labs, and thesis supervision. Notable awards include the 2020 Women’s STEM Award for her master’s thesis on in-network security and the 2019 Female Student Travel Award. Her research spans projects like VeN2uS (low-latency critical infrastructure communication), CONSENT (smart home security), and myneData/TRINICS. She has published extensively on topics including network monitoring, resilient smart grid communication, and industrial IoT security. Her work combines programmable networking, protocol evaluation, and cybersecurity frameworks to address real-world challenges in distributed systems. In teaching, she supervises bachelor’s/master’s theses on network emulation, industrial security, and programmable data planes. Her advising record includes over a dozen theses with topics ranging from starlink performance evaluation to secure industrial MUD frameworks. She collaborates across RWTH departments and external institutions, contributing to both academic conferences and applied security solutions.
Dr. Moritz Langer is a Researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), specializing in permafrost research. His work focuses on land surface processes in the Arctic, modeling permafrost landscape dynamics, and thermal remote sensing. He leads the BMBF Young Investigator Group PermaRisk, which assesses erosion processes in permafrost landscapes under climate change, evaluating risks to ecosystems and infrastructure in the Arctic. His research integrates field observations, remote sensing, and numerical modeling to understand permafrost degradation mechanisms. Key projects include studies on thermokarst patterns, ice-rich permafrost response to warming, and the thermal regime of Arctic rock walls. Langer’s contributions span over 200 publications, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to climate change impacts on permafrost regions. Langer collaborates with international teams and utilizes advanced technologies like satellite imagery, terrestrial laser scanning, and eddy covariance systems. His work addresses critical challenges such as thaw subsidence, methane emissions from frozen ponds, and the vulnerability of Arctic infrastructure to permafrost thaw.
Kevin Borgolte is a full professor for Software Security in the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) in Bochum, Germany. He is affiliated with HGI Bochum and the DFG Excellence Cluster CASA: Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries. His research focuses on improving the security, resilience, and privacy of software-based systems, with particular emphasis on real-world networked and distributed software systems. This work encompasses vulnerability discovery and mitigation, program and protocol analysis, and understanding how networked software is deployed and used. He has developed novel techniques to identify and mitigate Internet security threats, including detecting malicious software, discovering unknown attacks on networked systems, and conducting security-relevant measurements like large-scale IPv6-wide scanning. Professor Borgolte is a strong advocate for open science and open code, believing it is crucial for research reproducibility. His research group's GitHub organization is rub-softsec, and his earlier work is available through UCSB SecLab and UChicago NOISE Lab repositories. Third place in DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge (with Shellphish CGC team) He actively participates in Security Capture the Flag competitions with Shellphish and serves on multiple program committees for major security conferences including IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy (S&P), and USENIX Security Symposium. At RUB, he serves on the University Commission for Teaching, Faculty Council, and IT Advisory Board of the Faculty of Computer Science. His research group focuses on practical security challenges in real-world systems, with emphasis on empirical research and building deployable security tools that address vulnerabilities in networked software systems.
Prof. Dr. Tobias Heer serves as Professor and Dean of Computer Science and Engineering at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, where he also holds Senate and Building Committee roles. Based in Room F 01.312 at Campus Esslingen (Flandernstraße 101, 73732 Esslingen), he leads the IT Security Lab while teaching Network Security, IT Security, Offensive Security, and Security of Industrial Networks courses. His research spans industrial network security with emphasis on time-sensitive networking (TSN), deterministic networking (DetNet), and offensive security methodologies. Key focus areas include spoofed traffic detection, secure resource allocation protocols, internet-wide scanner analysis, and global software patching practices. His work bridges theoretical protocol design with industrial implementation challenges in critical infrastructure systems. Recent publications (2022-2024) reveal strong trends in industrial network security, particularly TSN/DetNet integration and real-time traffic protection. His team develops evaluation frameworks like GeNESIS for industrial scenarios while analyzing global patching discipline across sectors. Earlier foundational work includes Host Identity Protocol standards (RFC 7401, 8002) and distributed hash table applications for mesh networks. No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials. While advising activities aren't specified, his patent portfolio indicates active industry collaboration. He heads the IT Security Lab which focuses on industrial network security testing and protocol development, with recent projects examining PRP-based transmission systems and time-deterministic firewall mechanisms.
Dr. Sofia Antonova is a postdoctoral researcher in the Permafrost Research group at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), specifically within the Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems department. Her work focuses on remote sensing techniques, including SAR and InSAR, applied to permafrost studies. She is actively involved in the BMBF-funded project ThinIce , investigating permafrost dynamics and environmental impacts. Her research integrates satellite data with field observations to monitor thaw subsidence, subsidence detection, and permafrost-related environmental changes in Arctic and subarctic regions. Key research interests include permafrost degradation, cryosphere dynamics, and the application of advanced remote sensing methods for environmental monitoring. Projects span the Lena River Delta in Siberia and the Mackenzie Delta in Canada, addressing questions of methane emissions, soil temperature, and waterbody contributions to climate feedbacks. Publications emphasize interdisciplinary approaches combining geospatial analysis, field campaigns, and remote sensing data to advance understanding of permafrost vulnerability and its implications for global climate systems.
Vladislav Mladenov is a PostDoc at Ruhr University Bochum (Faculty of Computer Science) , affiliated with the Chair for Network and Data Security . He serves as Project Coordinator for the North Rhine-Westphalian Experts on Research in Digitalization (NERD II) and an Associated Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence CASA (Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries). Academic Background: Dipl.-Ing in IT-Security (Ruhr University Bochum, 2004–2012) Ph.D. in Network and Data Security (2012–2017) Research Interests span Information & Data Security , Authentication & Authorization Protocols , Data Format Security (JSON, XML, PostScript), and Network Protocols Security . His work focuses on vulnerability discovery in enterprise systems, IoT, and web standards. Scientific Contributions include analyses of PDF document security, 3D printing protocols, and Single Sign-On implementations. He has contributed to international standards via ISO/DIN working groups and the PDF Association . Scientific Awards: Excellent Teaching Award (2024) DFG Project Grant (2022) CSAW Best Paper Awards (2019, 2022) Eurobits Excellence Award (2019) CAST IT-Security Award (2017)
Andrea De Lucia serves as Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Salerno, Italy, maintaining an active research profile with office hours at Fisciano Campus (Building F2, Room 089) and correspondence via adelucia@unisa.it. His scholarly contributions span software engineering with particular emphasis on security, mobile systems, and emerging quantum applications. His research portfolio demonstrates evolving focus through distinct phases: 2018-2020 : Code smell analysis and mobile energy efficiency (e.g., Android energy consumption studies) 2021-2022 : Security vulnerability lifecycle and quantum software engineering foundations 2023-2025 : Ethical AI integration (fairness in ML engineering) and advanced exploit prediction Recent publications reveal strategic expansion into quantum-computing applications and AI ethics, maintaining core software engineering principles while addressing contemporary challenges in secure, reliable systems development. His work consistently bridges theoretical frameworks with empirical validation through large-scale studies. De Lucia actively contributes to the software engineering community as program committee member for premier conferences including ICSE, ASE, and ICSME across multiple years (2018-2026), demonstrating sustained leadership in the field.
Birgit Wenninghoff is a Lecturer for special tasks in the Department of Fine Arts at Alanus University of Arts and Society (since 2024). She holds a Master of Fine Arts (2013) and Product Design Diploma (2010) focusing on ceramics/glass and sculpture. Her career includes freelance artistic work (2010–present), a PhD in Artistic Research at Linz University (since 2023), and roles as an artistic assistant (2016–2023). Education: 2011–2013: Master of Fine Arts (sculpture/installation) at Alanus University 2001–2010: Product Design Studies (porcelain/ceramic/glass) at Niederrhein University 1994: Business Administration Diploma Research & Interests: Wenninghoff explores material transformation, decay, and natural processes through ceramics, sculpture, and installations. Notable projects include chorus (2024, based on forest stumps) and Carposoma Cascades (porcelain-embedded fungi). She emphasizes material vulnerability and cross-disciplinary methods (e.g., digital scans combined with clay molding). Exhibition Highlights: 2024: Becoming Mycelial (Denmark), chorus (Bonn) 2018: Injection and Reflection (China) 2013: figurativ / the figure (Westerwald Museum) Awards & Grants: 2021: Gabriele-Vossebein Prize and GEDOK Graphic Prize 2013: NASPA Ceramics Prize Commendation Erasmus+ Mobility Funding (2017, 2019, 2022) Lab/Team Work: Ongoing material research in ceramics/glass, including collaborations with institutions like the Glass Museum Immenhausen and international residencies in Palestine, Poland, and Austria.
