Supervision

Working with me

  • PhD or Master’s (thesis) students: Students seeking admission for Fall 2024 should check out information on the Faculty of Mathematics’ website. I can supervise/co-supervise students in the C&O (application deadline January 15) and CS (application deadline December 15) departments. Please also see below about what I look for in graduate students.
  • Undergraduate students: I will be considering applications for students for the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA/USRA) program for Spring 2024. Please see information on the C&O department website; the deadline for Spring 2024 is approximately December 2023. I do not have any other type of research assistantship or internship available.

What I look for in graduate students: The research projects I supervise are in cryptography, and generally involve the “provable security” / “reductionist security” methodology. Please check out my research interests and publications to get an idea of what areas of cryptography I work on. Generally I look for students with an undergraduate background in mathematics or theoretical computer science. It is essential to have studied cryptography at the undergraduate level, and highly preferable to have studied several of the following: number theory (3rd year or above); group theory; theory of computing (Turing machines etc.); computational complexity theory; quantum computing. Ideally students will also have some programming proficiency; Python and C are commonly used general-purpose languages in cryptography. Good preparatory reading for graduate studies in cryptography includes Introduction to Modern Cryptography by Katz and Lindell and Cryptography Made Simple by Smart. For students interested in post-quantum cryptography, background surveys include A Decade of Lattice Cryptography by Peikert and Supersingular Isogenies for Beginners by Costello.


Current students

I am supervising the following PhD students:

  • Camryn Steckel
  • Chelsea Komlo (co-supervisor)

I am supervising the following Master’s (thesis) students:

  • Ross Evans
  • Lewis Glabush

I am supervising the following researchers:

  • Pravek Sharma
  • Spencer Wilson

Past students

I have supervised the following postdoctoral researchers:

  • Dr. Nina Bindel
  • Dr. Praveen Gauravaram
  • Dr. Choudary Gorantla
  • Dr. Håkon Jacobsen
  • Dr. Zia Khan
  • Dr. John Schanck

I have supervised the following PhD students:

I have supervised the following Master’s (thesis) students: