Logician and a hacker Martina Lindorfer awarded Hedy Lamarr Prize of the City of ViennaThis year’s Hedy Lamarr Prize of the City of Vienna for “special achievements in the field of modern information technologies” was awarded on November 5, 2019, by Veronica Kaup-Hasler (City Councillor Science) and Kathrin Gaál (City Councillor Women) to Martina Lindorfer, from our Institute for Logic and Compututation.

“In her research, Martina Lindorfer deals with methods for the automated detection and defense from malware on mobile devices. She has developed a sandbox for Android apps, which she made available to the public. Lindorfer’s research provides insights into scientific, applied and regulatory issues. The topicality and relevance of her research, as well as her contribution to the society, are remarkable,” said the expert jury in its statement.

Martina Lindorfer is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Security and Privacy Group at TU Wien (Technische Universität Wien, formerly known as Vienna University of Technology) in Vienna, Austria. She is also a key researcher at SBA Research, the largest research center in Austria which exclusively addresses information security. Before that, she was a Postdoc in the Computer Security Group (SecLab) at UC Santa Barbara, working with Christopher Kruegel and Giovanni Vigna. She received her doctorate in 2016 with honors of the Austrian president (Promotio Sub Auspiciis Praesidentis), as well as the ERCIM Cor Baayen Young Researcher Award in 2018. During her PhD, she was advised by Edgar Weippl and worked as a research assistant at the International Secure Systems Lab (iSecLab). In addition to her PhD, she holds a Master’s degree in Software Engineering and Internet Computing from TU Wien and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer and Media Security from the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg.

The Hedy Lamarr Prize of the City of Vienna is awarded as the culmination and conclusion of the “Digital Days” and honors an Austrian researcher with 10,000 euros for her innovative achievements in IT. The Viennese Hedy Lamarr, who gave her name to the project, began to develop technologies for the Allies during the Second World War alongside her Hollywood career. Her pioneering patent for the “frequency hopping method” is considered a precursor of today’s Bluetooth and Wifi applications. Lamarr’s son, Anthony Loder, was present at the first award ceremony in 2018.

The winner herself has been chosen by a jury of four experts:

• Prof. Martina Mara, JKU Linz
• Prof. Ivona Brandic, TU Vienna
• Prof. Laura Kovacs, TU Vienna
• Prof. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer, University of Salzburg, last year’s Hedy Lamarr Prize winner.

The scientific cooperation partners for the nomination list are FWF, FFG, and WWTF.

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