Karen Azari

Karen Azari is an Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna, where she is a member of the Research Group Theory and Applications of Algorithms within the Faculty of Computer Science. Her office is located at Währinger Straße 29, 1090 Wien, and she can be reached at karen.azari@univie.ac.at.

Dr. Azari's academic background includes:

• PhD studies at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), advised by Krzysztof Pietrzak
• Postdoctoral work at ETH Zurich under the guidance of Dennis Hofheinz

Her primary research area is cryptography, specializing in formal security definitions and security proofs of cryptographic protocols. She focuses on secure group messaging, proof systems for decentralized systems, and the foundations of resource-restricted cryptography. Her work combines mathematical rigor with practical implementation considerations, developing protocols with provable security guarantees that address real-world security challenges. Dr. Azari approaches cryptographic problems with precision, ensuring her contributions advance both theoretical foundations and practical applications of cryptographic protocols.

Analysis of Dr. Azari's recent publications reveals a consistent focus on strengthening the theoretical underpinnings of cryptographic protocols while addressing practical implementation challenges. Her work spans multiple subfields including secure multi-party computation, group key agreement protocols, and cryptographic primitives based on lattice problems. A distinctive trend in her research is the emphasis on adaptive security models, which provide stronger guarantees against sophisticated adversaries who can adapt their attacks based on observed protocol executions.

Her scientific contributions have been recognized with notable honors:

• Best Student Paper award at ACNS 2025 for "Tighter provable security for TreeKEM"

As an educator and mentor, Dr. Azari currently supervises PhD student Maximilian von Consbruch (since 2025). She teaches core computer science courses including "Algorithms and Data Structures" and "Foundations of Cryptography" in the Spring semester of 2025. Her service to the academic community includes participation in prestigious program committees for major cryptography conferences including CFAIL 2025, ASIACRYPT 2024, CFAIL 2024, CRYPTO 2024, EUROCRYPT 2023, and TCC 2022.

Dr. Azari is a principal investigator within the Theory and Applications of Algorithms research group at the University of Vienna's Faculty of Computer Science, where she leads a research team focused on developing theoretically sound yet practically implementable cryptographic solutions for emerging security challenges in communication systems and decentralized applications.