florian.alt – Professor of Usable Security

Florian Alt is a Full Professor of Media Informatics in the Department of Computer Science at LMU Munich, Germany.

His research centers on designing secure and privacy-preserving systems that align seamlessly with everyday user interactions. In particular, Florian investigates how to understand and leverage user behavior (behavioral biometrics), harness physiological signals to enhance and create novel security mechanisms (physiological security), and address emerging threats in ubiquitous computing environments (ubiquitous security). His work spans several application domains, including smart homes, social engineering, authentication, and Mixed Reality.

Florian frequently serves as an associate chair, associate editor, and program committee member for leading conferences and journals in human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing (e.g., CHI, IMWUT/UbiComp, DIS, NordiCHI, MUM, and PerDis). Currently, he is the Program Chair of ACM ISS 2023 and 2024. His previous roles include Co-Chair of the CHI 2020 and 2021 UX subcommittee, TPC Chair of Mensch und Computer 2020 and 2023, Conference Co-Chair of MUM 2018, and Program Co-Chair of MUM 2016 and PerDis 2015. In addition, Florian chairs the Steering Committee for the MUM Conference Series.

Florian received a 2022 Test of Time Award from ACM Multimedia and has garnered over 15 Best Paper and Honorable Mention Awards at top-tier conferences (e.g., CHI, MobileHCI, IDC, COGAIN, SUI, and AmI). His work has been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Center for Digitization and Technology of the Bundeswehr, the ZD.B/Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Science, BMW, the Humboldt Foundation, the DAAD, Google, and the Telekom Innovation Labs.

Prior to rejoining LMU, Florian served as a Full Professor of Usable Security and Privacy at the CODE Research Center for Cyber Defense (University of the Bundeswehr Munich) and held an Assistant Professorship in Human-Computer Interaction at LMU München and the University of Applied Sciences Munich. He has also been a visiting researcher at TU Vienna as well as a guest lecturer at JKU Linz and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Beyond academia, Florian gained industry experience as a web developer at Pinnacle Systems and as an IT specialist at Schreiner Group in the United States. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Stuttgart and a diploma in Media Informatics from LMU Munich.

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