This year’s Hedy Lamarr Award of the City of Vienna for special achievement in the field of modern information technologies is awarded to Martina Lindorfer by Veronica Kaup-Hasler (City Councilor Science) and Kathrin Gaál (City Councilor Women). “Dr. Martina Lindorfer’s research focuses on methods for the automated detection and defense of malicious programs on mobile devices. She has developed a sandbox for Android apps, which she also made publicly available. Dr. Lindorfer’s research enables insights into scientific, applied as well as regulatory questions. The topicality and relevance of their research, as well as their contribution to society, are remarkable,” the jury said in its explanatory statement. Martina is assistant professor at TU Wien Informatics, where she also did her master’s and in 2017 did her doctorate sub auspiciis praesidentis. Between 2016 and 2018 she worked as a postdoc at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“Open and independent research is important”

Laureate Martina says: “I feel confirmed in my decision to embark on a research career. Through my role as a professor at the Vienna University of Technology, I hope to be able to inspire more girls for the subject of IT security, and in particular to increase the visibility of our research at TU Wien Informatics by this award, and to motivate more first-year students to enter Informatics.” Lindorfer concretely talks about her Work: “Especially in the area of ​​security and data protection, open and independent research is important, which is not determined by the big technology companies. The results of my research allow apps and devices to be automated for compliance with privacy policies, to identify new security breaches and data misuse, and to contribute to their elimination.”

A Trailblazer for a New Era

“Role models are an important topic. The Hedy Lamarr Award recognizes innovative women and makes their performance visible,” explains Kathrin Gaál at the presentation of the certificate and the statuette at Erste Campus. “Young women and girls should know that they can do anything they want. A message from the Hedy Lamarr Prize is: You have every chance open!” said the women’s councilor. Veronica Kaup-Hasler adds: “Hedy Lamarr’s most significant invention was directed against a threat to its time: its avant-garde patent was intended to fend off submarines. At the same time, Martina Lindorfer examines the threat scenarios of our time: Which submarines unnoticed are watching over our privacy and torpedo our personal freedom. “The Science Councilor continues:” Lindorfers work puts the human back into the center of technical development. That makes them a trailblazer for a new era of digital humanism.”

About the Hedy Lamarr Award

The Hedy Lamarr Award of the City of Vienna is awarded as the highlight and conclusion of the “Digital Days” and honors an Austrian researcher with 10,000 euros for her innovative achievements in IT. The eponymous Viennese Hedy Lamarr began to develop technologies for the Allies in addition to her Hollywood career during the Second World War. Their forward-looking patent “frequency hopping” is considered the forerunner of today’s Bluetooth and Wifi applications. At the first award ceremony in 2018 Lamarr’s son, Anthony Loder, was present. The award winner herself will be selected by a panel of four experts: Prof. Martina Mara, JKU Linz - Prof. Ivona Brandic, Vienna University of Technology - Prof. Laura Kovacs, Vienna University of Technology - and Prof. Verena Fuchsberger-Staufer, University of Salzburg, last year’s Hedy-Lamarr -Preisträgerin. Each award winner will be admitted to the jury of the Hedy Lamarr Prize as a new member. The scientific cooperation partners for the nomination list are FWF, FFG and WWTF.

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