Pramod Viswanath

Pramod Viswanath is the Forrest G. Hamrick Professor in Engineering at Princeton University, with affiliations in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Computer Science Department. His research spans blockchain technologies, wireless communication, and deep learning applications in coding theory.

• Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California-Berkeley (2000)

Current research focuses on first-principles understanding and design of blockchains and communication algorithms via deep learning. He has pioneered innovations like the Trifecta consensus algorithm and Coded Merkle Tree, achieving significant improvements in blockchain throughput and security.

Past work in wireless communication includes co-authoring a foundational book on the subject and designing Flash-OFDM, the first OFDM-based cellular system. His recent projects include the Prism consensus algorithm for Bitcoin scaling and Spider networking stack for blockchain efficiency.

• Best Paper Award, Sigmetrics (2015)
• Xerox Faculty Research Award, UIUC (2010)
• NSF CAREER Award (2002)
• Eliahu Jury Award, UC Berkeley EECS (2000)
• Bernard Friedman Prize, UC Berkeley Mathematics (2000)

He has advised numerous graduate students and leads research projects at the intersection of computing, networking, data science, and security & privacy. His work includes both theoretical advances and practical implementations, with applications in decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain governance.