Leyla Işık has obtained her PhD in Mathematics from Sabancı University, İstanbul, in 2015. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Salzburg in Austria and Sabancı University in İstanbul and worked as a lecturer at Okan University, Piri Reis University, Sabancı University, Şehir University and Bilgi University. Between 2019 and 2023 she was an assistant professor and head of the department of mathematics at Istinye University, İstanbul. Her research interests are Finite Fields, Cryptography, Coding Theory and Combinatorics. In 2023, she joined the Center of Cryptography of UP IAM and UP FAMNIT at the University of Primorska in Koper, Slovenia.