Markku-Juhani Saarinen is a Professor of Practice in Computing Sciences at Tampere University, affiliated with the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. from Royal Holloway, University of London (2009), and is a Docent in Cryptography and Information Security. His expertise spans applied cryptography, cryptographic engineering, post-quantum cryptography, and security assessments. He has led research on lattice-based cryptography, side-channel resistant implementations, and hardware security. Key contributions include the Round5 post-quantum encryption scheme, RISC-V entropy source interfaces, and the BLAKE2 cryptographic hash function. He has published extensively at top venues like CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, and PQCrypto, and co-edited conference proceedings such as the 2024 PQCrypto workshop. His research focuses on securing cryptographic systems against quantum computing threats, optimizing implementations for embedded devices, and advancing hardware-software co-design for cryptographic primitives. He actively collaborates with industry and academia to bridge theoretical advancements with practical applications in secure communication and embedded systems.






