Victor Shoup is a

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

. He obtained a PhD in computer science from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1989, and he did his undergraduate work at the

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. He is a professor at the

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU), and is among the most prestigious mathematics schools and mathematical sciences research cente ...

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, focusing on algorithm and cryptography courses. He is currently a Principal Research Scientist at DFINITY and has held positions at

AT&T Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Saarland University Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in si ...

, and the

IBM Zurich Research Laboratory IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research or ...

. Shoup's main research interests and contributions are computer

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing c ...

relating to

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777� ...

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

, and

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

. His contributions to these fields include: * The Cramer–Shoup cryptosystem asymmetric encryption algorithm bears his name. * His freely available (under the terms of the

GNU GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

)

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

library of number theory algorithms, NTL, is widely used and well regarded for its high performance. * He is the author of a widely used textbook, ''A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra'', which is freely available online. * He has proved (while at IBM Zurich) a lower bound to the

computational complexity In computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations) ...

for solving the

discrete logarithm problem In mathematics, for given real numbers ''a'' and ''b'', the logarithm log''b'' ''a'' is a number ''x'' such that . Analogously, in any group ''G'', powers ''b'k'' can be defined for all integers ''k'', and the discrete logarithm log''b'' ...

in the

generic group model The generic group model is an idealised cryptographic model, where the adversary is only given access to a randomly chosen encoding of a group, instead of efficient encodings, such as those used by the finite field or elliptic curve groups used in ...

. This is a problem in computational

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

which is of considerable importance to public-key cryptography. * He acted as editor for the

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

18033-2 standard for public-key cryptography. *One of the primary developers of

HElib Homomorphic Encryption library or HElib is a free and open-source cross platform software developed by IBM that implements various forms of homomorphic encryption. History HElib was primarily developed by Shai Halevi and Victor Shoup, shortl ...

Bibliography

* ''A Computational Introduction to Number Theory and Algebra'', 2nd Edition, 2009, Cambridge University Press, ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shoup, Victor Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty Year of birth missing (living people) University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni American computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists Modern cryptographers Public-key cryptographers 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Number theorists IBM employees Living people University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire alumni American cryptographers