Yael Tauman Kalai

Yael Tauman Kalai serves as an Adjunct Professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and is a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England. She co-leads the Cryptography and Information Security Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) alongside Vinod Vaikuntanathan, focusing on theoretical and applied cryptographic solutions for modern computing challenges.

Her academic foundation includes a BSc from Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1997), an MSc from Weizmann Institute of Science (2001), and a PhD from MIT (2006) under Shafi Goldwasser. This educational trajectory established her expertise in cryptographic theory and its real-world implementations.

Kalai's research pioneers verifiable computation delegation, ring signatures (co-invented with Rivest and Shamir), zero-knowledge proofs, and program obfuscation. Her work directly impacts blockchain security, cloud data integrity, and privacy-preserving technologies, with Ethereum implementing her 'doubly efficient' proofs for transaction verification. She bridges theoretical cryptography with practical systems to ensure digital security without sacrificing usability.

• 2022 ACM Prize in Computing for breakthroughs in verifiable computation delegation
• IACR fellowship recognizing cryptographic contributions
• George M. Sprowls Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis (2007)
• IBM PhD Fellowship (2004-2006)
• MIT Presidential Graduate Fellowship (2003-2006)
• Weizmann Institute Outstanding Master’s Thesis Prize (2001)

As a dedicated mentor, Kalai cultivates emerging cryptographers through collaborative research between MIT and Microsoft Research. Her laboratory investigates fault-tolerant communication protocols and error-resilient computational models to address vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure and distributed systems. Current projects focus on making program obfuscation practical for securing software against reverse engineering while maintaining functionality.