Brent Waters

Brent Waters is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin, where he has been since 2008. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University (2004) and held a postdoctoral position at Stanford University (2004-2005). His research focuses on cryptography and computer security, with groundbreaking work in Identity-Based Encryption, Functional Encryption, Attribute-Based Encryption, and code obfuscation. He is a founder of Functional Encryption and Attribute-Based Encryption.

• Education
  • Ph.D., Computer Science, Princeton University (2004)
• Research Interests
  • Cryptography, Security Protocols
  • Functional Encryption, Attribute-Based Encryption
  • Indistinguishability Obfuscation, LWE-Based Systems
  • Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Key-Dependent Message Security
• Selected Publications Trends
  • Recent work (2025) addresses adaptive security in broadcast encryption, SNARGs, and multi-authority ABE systems using LWE and bilinear maps.
  • Key themes include collusion resistance, witness encryption, and optimizing cryptographic assumptions like CRS size reduction.
• Scientific Awards
  • IEEE Fellow (2025), IACR Fellow (2024), ACM Fellow (2021)
  • Simons Investigator (2019), Grace Murray Hopper Award (2015)
  • Presidential Early Career Award (2011), Packard Fellowship (2011)
• Advising
  • Current Ph.D. students: Shafik Nassar, George Lu
  • Past Ph.D. students: Rachit Garg (2024), Satya Vusirikala (2021), Rishab Goyal (2019), Venkata Koppula (2018), Yannis Rouselakis (2013), Allison Bishop (2012)
• Contact
  • Email: bwaters@cs.utexas.edu
  • Phone: (512) 232-7464 | Office: GDC 6.810