The academic ceremony in the listed premises of the Royal Stables at LUH began with a welcome by the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Werle, followed by an address by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Blume, Vice President for Research and Transfer at LUH. The laudatory speech in honor of Michael Backes was held by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bodo Rosenhahn from the Institute of Information Processing. After a keynote lecture by Michael Backes, he received the honorary doctorate from Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Werle.
Michael Backes is the founding director and CEO of the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, the 18th Helmholtz Center in the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. In his research, Backes focuses on novel methods for protecting personal data, trustworthy methods for machine learning and universal solutions for software and system security. His research results have shaped these scientific fields both nationally and internationally, as impressively evidenced by over 350 peer-reviewed and much cited publications in renowned international journals and conference proceedings.
His papers have earned Backes internationally renowned scientific awards and honors, in particular the ERC Synergy Grant, which is Europe's most highly endowed EU research award, the Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize, an ERC Starting Grant, the Caspar Bowden Privacy Award, the IEEE Fellowship, as well as the ACM Fellowship. His research results have been translated into highly innovative applications which has brought him widespread attention beyond the scientific community. Backes was the first German to receive the MIT TR35 Award, which recognized him as one of the top 35 researchers and innovators in the world under the age of 35 (across disciplines). Michael Backes is Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Technical University Münich (TUM) and holds an honorary doctorate from the Université de Lorraine. He is also “Zukunftsbotschafter” and honorary citizen of the city of St. Ingbert.
"Mr. Backes' research is groundbreaking in two of the most important areas of research today: handling data protection concerns in the AI training phase in an appropriate manner and ensuring secure AI-generated content. Mr. Backes also has a particular interest in putting his foundational research into practice: His research results have repeatedly been translated into innovative applications, both in collaboration with industry partners and through three spin-offs. I am delighted that we can build on this development with the Leibniz-CISPA Center for Industrial Security and that this joint project gives us the opportunity to further develop scientifically, to debate, and to learn together", Prof. Bodo Rosenhahn said in his laudatory speech.
“It is with great pleasure that I accept this honorary doctorate from Leibniz University Hannover. Leibniz University is one of Germany's leading technical universities and, like CISPA, it stands for excellent research when it comes to answering big questions concerning the future. I would like to thank Leibniz University for this honorable award,” says the CISPA-Director.
About the Leibniz-CISPA Center for Industrial Security
In the Leibniz-CISPA Center for Industrial Security, which was founded in 2025, CISPA and LUH are working together in the area of cybersecurity research. As part of the zukunft.niedersachsen program, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation are jointly funding this initiative with a total of 11 million euros.
