Dr. Michael Schwarz is Faculty at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security. His research focuses on CPU and system security—an area in which he is regarded internationally as a leading expert. Schwarz was part of the research teams that discovered the processor vulnerabilities Meltdown, Spectre, Fallout, LVI, and ZombieLoad. He also co-developed a security mechanism against processor vulnerabilities that is now implemented in all modern operating systems.
After studying computer science and software engineering at Graz University of Technology, Schwarz earned his Ph.D. there in 2019 with a dissertation on software-based side-channel attacks and defense mechanisms in constrained environments. He is a regular speaker at international security conferences such as Black Hat, the Chaos Communication Congress (CCC), and Blue Hat.
“Much of our work stems from the curiosity to truly understand systems down to the last detail—and that often leads to insights on how to make them more secure,” says Michael Schwarz. “I’m very pleased that our research is being recognized beyond the scientific community as well.”
About the “Top 40 Under 40”
The “Top 40 Under 40” is one of the most prestigious awards for young decision-makers. In 2007, Capital magazine set out for the first time to find the leadership elite of tomorrow and presented “Germany’s Wunderkinder”: Forty outstanding talents under the age of forty who were already achieving remarkable things in politics, business, management, and society, and who were believed to have a great career ahead of them. At that time, nearly one-third of the 160 awardees were women. In the current edition, the number has risen to 42 percent.
