Bart Preneel

Prof. Bart Preneel, a full professor at KU Leuven, leads the renowned COSIC research group. His expertise lies in applied cryptography, cybersecurity, and privacy. Prof. Preneel has delivered over 150 invited talks across 50 countries and received prestigious awards such as the RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics (2014) and the ESORICS Outstanding Research Award (2017). He served as president of IACR (International Association for Cryptologic Research) and is also a fellow of the IACR. In 2024 he was elected member of the Royal Academy of Art and Sciences Belgium and he received the title of honorary professor at Shandong University. He frequently consults for industry and government about cybersecurity and privacy technologies and he has testified multiple times for the Belgian and European Parliaments. Prof. Preneel founded the mobile authentication startup nextAuth and holds roles in Approach Belgium, Tioga Capital Partners, and Nym Technologies. Actively engaged in cybersecurity policy, he contributes to ENISA as an Advisory Group member for the EU.