Aggelos Kiayias

Aggelos Kiayias FRSE is Chair in Cyber Security and Privacy and Director of the Blockchain Technology Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh. He is also Chief Scientist at blockchain technology company Input Output. His academic work spans over two decades with more than 200 publications in cryptography, blockchain, and security.

Dr. Kiayias received his Ph.D. from the City University of New York and was an undergraduate at the University of Athens Mathematics department. His research focuses on computer security, privacy, applied cryptography, and foundations of cryptography with particular emphasis on blockchain technologies, distributed systems, e-voting, secure multiparty protocols, and identity management.

His recent work demonstrates continued innovation across multiple dimensions of blockchain technology, with publications spanning theoretical foundations, practical implementations, economic modeling, and privacy-preserving techniques. The research output shows strong emphasis on security analysis, consensus protocols, transaction processing, and economic incentives within decentralized systems. His work bridges theoretical cryptography with real-world blockchain applications.

Among his notable recognitions are an ERC Starting Grant, Marie Curie fellowship, NSF Career Award, Fulbright Fellowship, election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021, and the BCS Lovelace Medal in 2024. He has served as program chair for major conferences including the Cryptographers' Track of RSA (2011), Financial Cryptography (2017), Real World Crypto Symposium (2020), and Public-Key Cryptography Conference (2020), and as general chair of Eurocrypt 2013.

Professor Kiayias has supervised over 20 PhD students, many of whom have gone on to academic positions at institutions including Imperial College, Stanford University, Royal Holloway University London, University of Glasgow, University of Sydney, and Virginia Commonwealth University. His current advisees include Yu Shen, Amirreza Sarencheh, and Christina Ovezik with expected graduations between 2025-2026.

He leads the Blockchain Technology Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh and is involved in several major blockchain research projects including Panoramix and Fentec. His research has received significant funding from the European Union (Horizon 2020, ERC), UK research councils (EPSRC), US agencies (NSF, DHS, NIST), and Greek research bodies.