For researchers, it is a very special honor when the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina appoints them as a member. After all, the learned society is the oldest permanently existing natural science academy in the world. It invites only researchers with outstanding scientific achievements.
Now, one of them is M. Angela Sasse, Professor for Human-Centred Security at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB). She is also one of the spokespersons of the Cluster of Excellence CASA. In the Academy's multi-stage selection process, she was confirmed as a new member of the Information Sciences Section in February 2023.
M. Angela Sasse as a Founder of Usable Security
M. Angela Sasse was one of the founders of the field of usable security within IT security. Due to her research work, the human factor has thus developed into an integral part of security research. Sasse is passionate about improving the security of IT users instead of declaring them as a vulnerability in the system - for this reason, she has named her research area "Human-Centred Security". To this end, Sasse not only researches the interaction between users and technology but also focuses on the work of developers in terms of usability.
After studying psychology at the University of Wuppertal and the University of Sheffield, M. Angela Sasse received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Birmingham. In 1990, she started working as a teacher in Computer Science at University College London. She became a professor of Human-Centred Technology there in 2003. From 2012-2018, she was the 1st Director of the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS) in the UK.
Back to Germany thanks to Horst Görtz Endowed Professorship
M. Angela Sasse finally came back to Germany thanks to the Horst Görtz Endowed Professorship, which was awarded to her in 2018. The funding of 1.43 million euros enabled her to establish the Human-Centred Security Chair at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at RUB.
Since 2021, Sasse has been the spokesperson for the Digital Consumer Protection Advisory Board at the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). In addition to her membership in the Leopoldina, she was admitted to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts (AWK) in 2021.
About the Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences
As Germany's National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina and its approximately 1,600 members take an independent and public stand on the scientific foundations of political and social issues. It represents German science in international bodies and contributes to a scientifically informed society.
General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.