Bart Preneel received the Electrical Engineering degree and the Doctorate in Applied Sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). He is currently full professor (gewoon hoogleraar) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He has authored and co-authored more than 200 scientific publications and is inventor of two patents.

He has participated to more than 20 research projects sponsored by the European Commission, for four of these as project manager. He was program (co-)chairman of 9 international conferences and has been a member of more than 100 international program committees. He has been invited speaker at 25 international conferences and workshops. He has lectured at 30 international Summer Schools in 15 countries.

In 2003, he has received the European Information Security Award in the area of academic research, and he received an honorary Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) designation by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA).

He is president of L-SEC vzw. (Leuven Security Excellence Consortium), an association of 50 companies and research institutions in the area of e-security.