Marc-Oliver Pahl is Full Professor for Cybersecurity at IMT Atlantique, one of France’s leading Grandes Écoles (English: ~elite technical university, German: ~Exzellenzuniversität) within the Institut Mines-Télécom. He directs the chair Cybersécurité des Infrastructures Critiques (Cyber CNI), that he developed into France’s best known and largest industrial chair in cybersecurity. Bing part of the IMT group, the chair spans three of France’s major cybersecurity research organizations: X Télécom Paris, X Télécom SudParis, and IMT Atlantique.
Marc-Oliver earned his PhD summa cum laude from Technische Universität München (TUM), where his research focused on semantic approaches to interoperability and security in distributed, heterogeneous microservice architectures. His specialization in computer networks and distributed systems provided a strong technical foundation that continues to underpin his work in cybersecurity today. During his time at TUM, he received multiple awards, including the prestigious Ernst Otto Fischer Teaching Award (2013), second place in the TUM PhD Supervisory Award (2022), and several recognitions for innovative teaching formats and projects.
He also holds a Diplom degree from Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, where he graduated with the top grade of 1.0. His studies combined a strong technical focus on computer networks, distributed systems, and computer graphics, with a minor in media science—an interdisciplinary combination that now informs his research into next-generation user interfaces for cybersecurity and his work on disinformation and fake news. This diverse academic background gives Marc-Oliver a unique perspective that bridges core technical research with human-centered and societal challenges in cybersecurity.
Marc-Oliver’s chair on Cybersecurity for Critical National Infrastructures focuses on the protection of Critical National Infrastructures through interdisciplinary research and strong industry collaboration. His partners are France’s major companies including Airbus, EDF, SNCF, BNP Paribas, and Nokia Bell Labs. It also includes the COMCYBER and the Pôle d’Excellence Cyber, as well as the Brittany region that is the cybersecurity center of France besides Paris.
He serves as President of the German Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is a steering committee member of both the German Informatics Society (GI) and the German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future, reflecting his active role in shaping the future of digital innovation and cross-border collaboration. He is also a member of the administrative council of the Pôle d’Excellence Cyber (PEC), one of the major cybersecurity actors in France.
Marc-Oliver’s research takes a holistic view on cybersecurity, emphasizing collaborative defense strategies. His work includes federated and swarm learning and blockchain for securing systems, side-channel-based anomaly detection using sound and current, and next generation immersive user interfaces for improving cybersecurity operations, as well as generative AI and disinformation, bridging cutting-edge technologies with real-world challenges.
A multi-award-winning educator and recognized eLearning pioneer, he is known for his engaging teaching style and innovative formats. He regularly curates high-impact public events, including the TALK.CYBERCNI.fr Speaker Series and the international Future-IoT PhD School Series, making complex cybersecurity topics accessible and inspiring to broad audiences.
In the past he created the biggest lab course in computer networks and distributed systems that is currently running at Technische Universität München, Universität Tübingen, University of South Wales, and in parts at IMT Atlantique. This format educated more than 4000 students at the institutions. A reduced Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) version is available on edX and Coursera, including a unique online laboratory. This course attracted more than 10000 learners so far!
Marc-Oliver obtained more than 5 MEUR third party funding through industry projects, public funding (BMBF, BMWI), and European funding (Horizon Europe). He has a strong network of industrial, institutional and academic actors around cybersecurity in Europe.
Marc-Oliver is a well-known and very active member of the Network Operations and Management community. He regularly co-organizes major events of this community including the Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), the Conference for Network and Service Management (CNSM), and the Manage IoT woskhop series that he co-founded in 2018. He is associate editor of the Springer Journal of Network and Systems Management (JNSM) and the ACM International Journal of Network Management (IJNM).
Coming from a strong background in distributed systems and network/service management, Marc-Oliver has, since 2019, dedicated his efforts to the creation and development of the Cyber CNI Chair, now recognized as one of the leading industrial research initiatives in cybersecurity in France. His recent focus has been on building deep collaborations between academia and industry, shaping strategic research directions, and contributing to the broader cybersecurity ecosystem. While his earlier publications reflect his foundational domain, he is now actively working to increase the Chair’s and his own visibility within the core cybersecurity research community, including through contributions to top-tier venues such as NDSS, ESORICS, and IEEE Security & Privacy.
Marc-Oliver (co-)supervised a dozen PhD students, and more than 300 Master, Bachelor and Engineering students. He is a regular PhD jury member at Europe’s leading research institutions.