Biography

Leon Birkel is a doctoral candidate at the Associate Professorship of Embedded Systems and Internet of Things, School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich (TUM). His research focuses on space systems security: the security of communication between satellites and of the components inside them.

This direction began with his master's thesis, which proposed authenticating optical inter-satellite links through orbital mechanics rather than secret keys. The idea is that every attack needs a physical position in space, and maintaining it costs propellant. 

He holds a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Informatics from TUM. Before starting his doctorate, he worked as a student research assistant at Fraunhofer AISEC, where he worked on a post-quantum-secure remote-safety demonstrator and a relay kit for attacks on vehicle keyless entry. He is also the founder of OPL, an esports tournament platform with over 50,000 players.

Open Positions for Students

If you are interested in my area of research and are looking for a bachelor's thesis (BT), master's thesis (MT), research internship (FP), Interdisciplinary Project in an Application Subject (IDP) or similar, feel free to contact me.

Interests

• Space systems security
• Usable security
• Network security
• IoT, smart home and homelab tinkering
• 3D printing
• Entrepreneurship
• Esports and competitive gaming

Publications

2025	Puch, Nikolai, Stefan Dopfer, and Leon Birkel. "Securing the additive manufacturing process chain." International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2025.