PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Bart Preneel

Bart Preneel is a cryptographer whose work in applied cryptography and privacy includes privacy-preserving machine learning. At KU Leuven, he earned an electrical engineering degree in 1987 and a PhD in applied sciences in 1993. He led the International Association for Cryptologic Research from 2008 to 2013, became an IACR Fellow in 2015, and coordinated technical work on Belgium’s Coronalert app in 2020. In 2024, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Art and Sciences Belgium; in 2025, he received Data News’s ICT Personality of the Year award and coauthored a paper on privacy-preserving machine learning. As of October 2026, he is a full professor at KU Leuven and heads COSIC.

Now at
KU Leuven
Born
1963
Works
1,116
Citations
22,516
h-index
73
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1987

    Electrical engineering degree

    He earns an electrical engineering degree from KU Leuven in 1987.

  2. 1993

    A cryptographic-hash PhD

    He earns a PhD in applied sciences from KU Leuven in 1993 for a dissertation on the analysis and design of cryptographic hash functions.

  3. 2002–2013

    Leading the IACR

    He serves as vice president of the International Association for Cryptologic Research from 2002 to 2007 and as its president from 2008 to 2013.

  4. 2015

    An IACR fellowship

    In 2015, he becomes an IACR Fellow for service, research contributions, educational leadership, and leadership in European cryptologic research.

  5. 2020

    Coronalert app architecture

    In 2020, he serves as architect of Belgium’s Coronalert app and coordinates its technical work.

  6. 2024

    Election to the Royal Academy

    In 2024, he is elected a member of the Royal Academy of Art and Sciences Belgium.

  7. 2025

    An ICT award and ML paper

    Data News names him ICT Personality of the Year 2025 at the Data News Awards for Excellence. He coauthors a 2025 paper that compares multiparty-computation frameworks for privacy-preserving machine learning by computational and communication complexity, throughput, security guarantees, and use in small-party settings.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and COSIC head

    He is a full professor at KU Leuven, heads the COSIC research group, and works in applied cryptography, cybersecurity, and privacy.

Career

  1. Since 1990KU LeuvenFull Professor
  2. 2005–2026IMEC
  3. 2002–2013International Association for Cryptologic ResearchVice President, President

Education

  1. 1993KU LeuvenPhD
  2. 1987KU LeuvenElectrical engineering degree

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes KU Leuven. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. Universities keep AI researchers for a median of 6 years, compared with 2 years at frontier labsIncludes KU Leuven. Across 15,811 dated work stays (6,529 people), median role tenure runs from 6 years at universities to 2 years at frontier labs. We compare all five organization types, starting decades from the 1970s to the 2020s, and the organizations that keep people longest.
  3. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIIncludes KU Leuven. We estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes KU Leuven. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Bart Preneel - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Bart Preneel – SBA Research sba-research.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Bart Preneel, 2015 IACR Fellow iacr.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Belgium forked its COVID-19 app | Interoperable Europe Portal interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Bart Preneel - ETSI etsi.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Bart Preneel (KU Leuven) is ICT Personality of the Year 2025 - Roularta roularta.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. SoK: Connecting the Dots in Privacy-Preserving ML - Systematization of MPC Protocols and Conversions Between Secret Sharing Schemes eprint.iacr.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  8. NieuwjaarsNetwerkEvent 2026 met Prof. Bart Preneel (“ICT Personality of the Year” 2025) | ie-net ie-net.be. Checked 20 October 2026.