Maria Francis

Maria Francis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. She previously held postdoctoral and doctoral roles in academia, focusing on computational mathematics and cryptography.

• Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
• Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut

Research Interests: Maria's work bridges computational algebra, symbolic computation, and lattice-based cryptography. She explores theoretical foundations in computer science, with applications to cybersecurity, blockchain technologies, and distributed systems. Her current focus includes algebraic structures in cryptography and secure computing paradigms.

Professional Experience: Before joining IIT Hyderabad, Maria worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Algebra, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria under Prof. Manuel Kauers. She also served as a doctoral student at IISc's Computer Science and Automation department under Dr. Ambedkar Dukkipati. Earlier, she worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft India (R&D) from 2007 to 2009.