Vipul Goyal is an Associate Professor at the Computer Science Department of Carnegie Mellon University and a Senior Scientist at NTT Research in California. He is on leave from CMU since joining NTT Research in June 2020 after a 7-year tenure at Microsoft Research. His research focuses on Cryptography , Quantum Cryptography , Security & Privacy , and Theoretical Computer Science , supported by grants from NSF, DARPA, Department of Energy NETL, JP Morgan, Cisco, PNC, Ripple, and CyLab initiatives.
Anna Lysyanskaya is the James A. and Julie N. Brown Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. She joined Brown in 2002 after earning her Ph.D. from MIT. Her research focuses on cryptography, particularly privacy-preserving protocols and anonymous credentials. She has received prestigious awards including the NSF Career Award, Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and Google/IBM Faculty Fellowships. Her work emphasizes secure communication systems and cryptographic foundations for privacy. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT. Research interests include cryptographic protocols, anonymity, and secure authentication. She has authored over 140 publications and contributed to projects like PACIFIC for privacy-preserving contact tracing and Bruisable Onions for anonymous communication. Her grants support advancements in cryptographic security and privacy-enhancing technologies. Awards include the NSF Career Award, Sloan Fellowship, and multiple industry recognitions. She collaborates widely and advises on cryptographic standards for digital identity and secure computation.
Aayush Jain is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at NTT Research and a PhD student at UCLA, advised by Professor Amit Sahai. His work bridges theoretical and applied cryptography with core computer science principles. Education PhD in Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Postdoctoral Fellowship, NTT Research Research Focus His research explores: foundational cryptography, indistinguishability obfuscation, functional encryption, lattice-based cryptography, secure multi-party computation, and post-quantum security. Work emphasizes rigorous theoretical frameworks with practical implications. Publication Trends Recent articles (2021-2024) demonstrate consistent focus on cryptographic primitives, obfuscation techniques, and security reductions. Dominant venues include CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, FOCS, and STOC with emerging work in machine learning interfaces. Awards Best Paper Award at STOC 2021 for foundational contributions to indistinguishability obfuscation Advising and Collaboration Current PhD advisees: Alper Cakan, Quang Dao (co-advised), Sagnik Saha, Noah Singer (co-advised). Mentored postdocs: Mitali Bafna (2022-2023) and Rex Fernando (2022-2023). Teaches graduate courses in cryptography and theoretical tools. Leadership Leads the CMU Cryptography research group; organized the CMU Cryptography Workshop. Program committee member for FOCS, TCC, ITCS, and ICALP.
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States
Vinod Vaikuntanathan is the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering in the MIT EECS department and a principal investigator at MIT CSAIL. He holds a BTech from IIT Madras (2003), and SM/PhD degrees from MIT (2005/2009). His research focuses on cryptography, particularly fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), lattice-based cryptography, and quantum-resistant systems. He co-founded Duality Technologies as Chief Cryptographer. **Education:** BTech in Computer Science (2003), Indian Institute of Technology Madras SM in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (2005), MIT PhD in Computer Science (2009), MIT **Research Interests:** His work spans FHE (enabling computations on encrypted data), lattice-based cryptography (post-quantum security), and intersections with quantum computing, machine learning, and privacy. He explores applications in secure computation, algorithm design, and cryptographic protocols. **Awards:** Recipient of the Gödel Prize (2022), Simons Investigator (2023), and MacVicar Faculty Fellow (2024). His work on FHE and lattice algorithms has earned widespread acclaim in cryptography and theoretical computer science. **Teaching & Mentorship:** Advanced cryptography courses at MIT (e.g., 6.5630, 6.876J) Advised PhD students (e.g., Sergey Gorbunov, Tianren Liu) and postdocs (e.g., Nir Bitansky, Mark Zhandry) now leading positions in academia and industry **Collaborations:** Organizer of the Charles River Crypto Day and MIT Cryptography Seminar Principal investigator on grants from NSF, DARPA, and Microsoft
Leonid Reyzin is a Professor and Associate Chair of Academics at Boston University, specializing in cryptography. His research focuses on enabling secure computation, communication, and collaboration in untrusted environments, with contributions to biometric security, cryptographic protocols, and privacy-preserving technologies. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT and has advised on industry standards and received prestigious awards including the NSF CAREER Award and Boston University’s Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching. His work spans cryptographic primitives such as fuzzy extractors, verifiable random functions, and proofs of space, addressing challenges like secure key derivation from noisy data and blockchain security. He has collaborated on standards like RFC 9381 and contributed to cryptographic tools for distributed systems and privacy-enhancing technologies. Reyzin’s research emphasizes practical applications, including secure authentication systems, cryptographic protocols for blockchain and distributed ledgers, and mitigating threats like side-channel attacks. His recent work explores advancements in proofs of space, memory-hard functions, and asynchronous authenticated data structures, reflecting a balance between theoretical rigor and real-world applicability. Awards: NSF CAREER Award, Neu Family Award for Excellence in Teaching Key Contributions: Fuzzy extractors, VRFs, cryptographic standards development, blockchain security frameworks Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, MIT
Chris Peikert is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan's College of Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 2006 under the supervision of Silvio Micali. Peikert is a leading researcher in cryptography, particularly known for his foundational work in lattice-based cryptography. His research interests span cryptography, lattices, coding theory, algorithms, and computational complexity, with a particular focus on cryptographic schemes whose security can be based on the apparent intractability of lattice problems. Peikert has made significant contributions to the development and analysis of lattice-based cryptographic primitives, including ring-LWE, fully homomorphic encryption, and zero-knowledge proofs. Peikert's recent work demonstrates continued leadership in post-quantum cryptography, with publications in top venues like CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, and STOC. His research spans theoretical foundations of lattice problems to practical implementations of lattice-based cryptographic systems, including hardware acceleration for fully homomorphic encryption. IACR Fellow (2024) Test-of-Time Award from Crypto 2008 (2023) TCC Test-of-Time Award (2017) Patrick C. Fischer Development Professor of Theoretical Computer Science (2017) Best Paper Award at Eurocrypt 2010 Best Paper Award at STOC 2009 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship Google Research Award Peikert has been actively involved in the cryptographic research community, serving on program committees for major conferences including CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, FOCS, and TCC (where he was program co-chair in 2021). He has also developed educational resources, including extensive lecture materials on lattice-based cryptography and teaching courses on cryptography and theoretical computer science at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Affiliations Full-time Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS) , Singapore Management University (SMU). Research focuses on cryptography, post-quantum systems, and secure protocols. Previously affiliated with PolyU for select teaching and collaborations. Education PhD in Computer Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015). Research Interests Specializes in advanced cryptographic techniques including: Post-Quantum Cryptography (e.g., lattice-based systems) Threshold Cryptography (e.g., secure distributed ECDSA) Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Privacy-Preserving Technologies Authenticated Key Exchange (AKE) protocols Efficient implementations of cryptographic primitives (e.g., Kyber, NewHope) Notable Awards First Prize (LAC.PKE) and Second Prize (SIAKE, LAC.KEX) in Chinese Post-Quantum Cryptography Competition (2020) Best Paper Awards at IWSEC 2015 and ProvSec 2014 Advising & Collaborations Advises PhD students JIANG Bowen and WANG Jiaheng at SMU. Collaborates with researchers such as Guofeng Tang (post-doc) and international teams. Active in organizing conferences (e.g., CCS, ProvSec) and contributes to open-source projects like the Preprocess-then-NTT library. Labs & Teams Leads research initiatives at SMU focused on cryptographic protocol design and implementation. Collaborates with PolyU on advanced security projects.
Dr. Ciara Rafferty is a Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast's School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, affiliated with the Centre for Secure Information Technologies. She leads research in advanced cryptography, focusing on post-quantum systems, homomorphic encryption, and hardware acceleration. Her work includes quantum-safe cryptography projects like the UK Quantum Communications Hub and AQuASeC (Innovate UK). She co-teaches CSC2056 - Systems Security and Cryptography and actively supervises PhD students. Dr. Rafferty is a Senior Member of IEEE and an EPSRC SPRITE+ Expert Fellow. Research Interests: Homomorphic Encryption Post-Quantum Cryptography Cryptographic Hardware Architectures Privacy-Preserving Technologies Side-Channel Attack Mitigation Key Projects: UK Quantum Communications Hub (Phase 2) SAFEcrypto (H2020 Project) AQuASeC (Toshiba Europe-funded) SEQURED (Rolls Royce-funded) Awards: Senior Member of IEEE EPSRC SPRITE+ Expert Fellow Advising & Grants: PhD Supervision: Shabnam K (Secure Cloud Computation) Funding: EPSRC, Innovate UK, Industry Partners Lab/Teams: Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), collaborating on hardware-accelerated cryptography and quantum-safe systems.
Henry Corrigan-Gibbs is an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is affiliated with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and collaborates with the PDOS and CSS research groups. Henry co-hosts the MIT Security Seminar series. Education : PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University (advisor: Dan Boneh), Postdoc at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (host: Bryan Ford), and B.S. in Computer Science from Yale University . Research Interests Henry focuses on computer security , cryptography , and systems research , building technologies that: Empower end users through privacy-preserving design Implement strong cryptographic security in real-world deployments Scale to millions of users while maintaining security Key projects include: Tiptoe for private web search Prio for privacy-preserving aggregate statistics used by Apple and Google Express for metadata-hiding communication SafetyPin and True2F for secure authentication Scientific Contributions Standards Influence : IETF and NIST standards recommend his private-aggregation systems Industry Impact : Deployed in Apple iOS , Google Android , and Mozilla Firefox Non-profit Deployment : Co-founder of Divvi Up for real-world Prio implementations Academic Recognition 2023 MIT EECS Jerome Saltzer Award for teaching excellence 2020 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Honorable Mention 2016 Caspar Bowden Award for PET research 2015 IEEE Security & Privacy Distinguished Paper Award Multiple IACR Best Young Researcher Paper Awards (2015–2018) Advising and Collaborations Current advisees include: PhD students: Alexandra Henzinger , Ryan Lehmkuhl Postdoc: Emma Dauterman Collaborates with industry (Apple, Google, Mozilla) and standards bodies (IETF, NIST) to translate research into practice.
Rafail Ostrovsky is the Norman E. Friedman Chair in Knowledge Sciences at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, where he serves as a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics. He also directs the Center for Information and Computation Security at UCLA. His academic leadership extends to his role as a foreign member of Academia Europaea and his fellowship in multiple prestigious organizations including the National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and IACR. Professor Ostrovsky's research spans multiple domains in theoretical computer science, with primary focus on cryptography, secure computation, and algorithms. His work on garbled circuits, zero-knowledge proofs, and private information retrieval has had significant theoretical and practical impact. He has pioneered research in secure multi-party computation, oblivious RAM, and cryptographic protocols that maintain privacy while enabling complex computations on sensitive data. His research bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in secure systems, ranging from database security to hardware-based cryptographic primitives. Ostrovsky's publication record shows a consistent trajectory of innovation in cryptographic theory and its applications. His recent work focuses on optimizing secure computation protocols for efficiency while maintaining strong security guarantees, with particular attention to communication complexity, round complexity, and practical implementations. He has made significant contributions to homomorphic encryption, non-malleable commitments, and zero-knowledge proofs, often developing techniques that transform theoretical constructs into practically viable solutions. 1993 Henry Taub Prize 2017 IEEE Computer Society Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award 2018 RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics (RSA Prize) 2022 W. Wallace McDowell Award (highest award from IEEE Computer Society) Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and IACR Foreign member of Academia Europaea With over 350 peer-reviewed publications and 16 issued USPTO patents, Professor Ostrovsky has significantly shaped the field of cryptography and secure computation. His mentorship has cultivated numerous students and postdocs who have gone on to make their own contributions to the field. His editorial roles on prestigious journals including Journal of ACM and Algorithmica reflect his standing in the theoretical computer science community. His leadership extends to chairing major conferences including FOCS 2011 and serving on over 40 international conference program committees. As Director of the Center for Information and Computation Security at UCLA, Professor Ostrovsky leads a team focused on advancing the theoretical foundations and practical applications of secure computation. His center serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connecting cryptography with systems security, network protocols, and hardware security. The center's work spans from foundational cryptographic primitives to real-world applications requiring privacy-preserving computation.
Nir Bitansky is an associate professor of computer science at New York University's Courant Institute, part of the Theory Group and Cryptography Group. He previously held a faculty position at Tel Aviv University (now on leave) and was a postdoctoral researcher at MIT CSAIL, advised by Vinod Vaikuntanathan. His Ph.D. from Tel Aviv University was under Ran Canetti. His research focuses on foundational aspects of cryptography and computational complexity, including zero-knowledge proofs, obfuscation, and post-quantum security. Research Interests: His work bridges theoretical computer science and cryptography, addressing topics such as secure computation, cryptographic hardness assumptions (e.g., LWE, PPAD), privacy-preserving protocols, and quantum-resistant cryptography. Key areas include randomized encodings, succinct arguments, and the interplay between complexity theory and cryptographic primitives. Publications: His recent work emphasizes post-quantum cryptography (e.g., zero-knowledge protocols, commitment schemes) and foundational results in obfuscation. Notable contributions include advancements in batch proofs, non-interactive arguments, and the cryptographic hardness of local search problems. Students and Postdocs: Advised Ph.D. students include Sapir Freizeit, Nathan Geier, and Omri Shmueli (co-advised with Zvika Brakerski). Hosted postdocs such as James Bartusek (now at Columbia) and Rachit Garg. Collaborates widely, co-authoring papers with figures like Vinod Vaikuntanathan and Omer Paneth. Affiliations: Serves on program committees for top venues (e.g., CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, FOCS). Taught courses on cryptography fundamentals, advanced topics, and lattices at TAU and NYU.
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Prof. Dr. Willi Meier serves as a Lecturer for mathematics and cryptology at the Institute for Sensors and Electronics within the School of Engineering and Environment at FHNW (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland) in Windisch, Switzerland. With an extensive publication record spanning over three decades (1988-2025), he maintains an active research profile in cryptographic analysis. Dr. Meier's research primarily focuses on cryptanalysis of symmetric cryptographic primitives, with particular expertise in stream ciphers, block ciphers, and hash functions. His work frequently employs algebraic techniques, differential cryptanalysis, and mathematical modeling approaches to analyze cryptographic security. Recent research has centered on analyzing modern ciphers like Grain, Keccak, RIPEMD-160, and various lightweight cryptographic designs, often developing novel attack methodologies such as coefficient grouping and algebraic meet-in-the-middle approaches. His publication trends over the last five years show consistent high productivity in top-tier venues including CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, ASIACRYPT, and IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology. The research spans both theoretical advancements in cryptanalytic techniques and practical applications to real-world cryptographic standards. A significant portion of his recent work involves collaborations with international researchers, particularly Fukang Liu, Takanori Isobe, and Santanu Sarkar, reflecting his integration within the global cryptographic research community. Dr. Meier's work has practical implications for cryptographic standardization and implementation security, with analyses of protocols used in telecommunications (TETRA), lightweight IoT applications, and post-quantum cryptographic candidates. His research continues to contribute to the fundamental understanding of symmetric cryptographic primitives and their security margins.
Dario Fiore is an Associate Research Professor at the IMDEA Software Institute in Madrid, Spain. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Catania, Italy (2010), and has held postdoctoral positions at institutions including Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (Germany), New York University (USA), and École Normale Supérieure (France). His research focuses on Cryptography and Security, particularly designing provably-secure cryptographic primitives for Cloud computing applications, including secure data delegation, homomorphic authenticators, zero-knowledge proof systems, functional encryption, and homomorphic encryption. He advises multiple PhD students and has led projects like the ERC Consolidator Grant PICOCRYPT (2021–2026). He has been recognized with awards such as the ACM SIGMM Test of Time Honourable Mention (2022) and the IET Information Security Premium Award (2020). Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Catania, Italy (2010) Visiting Student: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and New York University (USA) Research Interests Fiore’s work bridges theoretical and practical aspects of Cryptography, emphasizing efficiency and real-world applications. Key areas include: Secure delegation of computation/data to Cloud systems Homomorphic encryption and authenticators Zero-knowledge proof systems (e.g., zkSNARKs) and functional encryption Cryptography for privacy-preserving machine learning and decentralized systems Grants & Projects ERC Consolidator Grant PICOCRYPT (2021–2026) NEC Laboratories Europe collaboration (2024) ESPADA and PRODIGY EU projects Awards ACM SIGMM Test of Time Honourable Mention (2022) IET Information Security Premium Award (2020) ACM CCS 2022 Top Reviewer Award Labs & Teams Fiore leads a dynamic research group with active collaborations in cryptography, including postdocs, PhD students, and industry partnerships with Protocol Labs, Nomadic Labs, and Tezos Foundation.
Duong Hieu Phan is a Professor at Telecom Paris, part of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, and Head of the Cybersecurity-Cryptography team. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Ecole Normale Supérieure and has extensive postdoctoral experience at University College London and research roles at France Telecom R&D. His academic career includes roles as an assistant/associate professor at LAGA, University of Paris 8 (2007–2015), and later as a professor and director of the Master 2 Maths CRYPTIS program at XLIM, University of Limoges (2015–2020). His research focuses on cryptography, with emphasis on provable security, functional encryption, privacy-preserving systems, and anamorphic cryptography. Key areas include secure communication mechanisms against oppressive surveillance, decentralized systems, and post-quantum security. He has contributed to foundational work on CCA security for FHE, quantum-resistant protocols, and verifiable functional encryption. Prof. Phan is actively involved in professional committees, including IACR ASIACRYPT and PKC steering committees, and editorial boards such as the IACR CIC Journal. He promotes Franco-Vietnamese scientific collaboration through roles in the CNRS IRL partnership. His teaching spans cryptography, algorithms, and mathematics at undergraduate and master’s levels, including program coordination and research supervision.
Liang Xue is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Technology at York University. She holds a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo (2022) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Guelph’s School of Computer Science (2022–2024). Her research focuses on applied cryptography, blockchain security, privacy-preserving AI, and cybersecurity in cloud and IoT systems. She has published in top-tier journals like IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, and conferences such as IEEE International Conference on Communications. Her work addresses challenges in data privacy, secure authentication, and regulatory compliance in decentralized systems. Recent projects include privacy-enhancing technologies for access control, blockchain-based data trading frameworks, and federated learning with privacy guarantees. She actively contributes to standards for cybersecurity in smart cities and next-generation wireless networks.
