Yael Tauman Kalai is a

cryptographer 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 ...

and

theoretical computer scientist computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumscribe the th ...

who works as a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and as an adjunct professor at MIT in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Education and career

Kalai graduated from the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...

in 1997. She worked with

Adi Shamir Adi Shamir ( he, עדי שמיר; born July 6, 1952) is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) algorithm (along with Ron Rivest and Len Adleman), a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identificat ...

at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

, earning a master's degree there in 2001, and then moved to the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where she completed her PhD in 2006 with

Shafi Goldwasser en, Shafrira Goldwasser , name = Shafi Goldwasser , image = Shafi Goldwasser.JPG , caption = Shafi Goldwasser in 2010 , birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. , birth_date = , death_date ...

as her doctoral advisor. She did postdoctoral study at Microsoft Research and the Weizmann Institute before becoming a faculty member at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. She took a permanent position at Microsoft Research in 2008. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the

Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics The Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM), founded in 2011, is an American research institute in mathematics at Brown University, funded beginning in 2010 by a grant from the National Science Foundation. A ...

(ICERM).

Contributions

Kalai is known for co-inventing

ring signature In cryptography, a ring signature is a type of digital signature that can be performed by any member of a set of users that each have keys. Therefore, a message signed with a ring signature is endorsed by someone in a particular set of people. On ...

s, which has become a key component of numerous systems such as

Cryptonote CryptoNote is an application layer protocol designed for use with cryptocurrencies that aims to solve specific problems identified in Bitcoin. Namely: * Traceability of transactions * The proof-of-work function (see Bitcoin network) * Irregul ...

and

Monero (cryptocurrency) Monero (; ISO 4217#Unofficial codes for cryptocurrencies, Abbreviation: XMR) is a decentralized cryptocurrency. It uses a public distributed ledger with privacy-enhancing technologies that obfuscate transactions to achieve anonymity and fungib ...

. Subsequently, together with her advisor

, she demonstrated an insecurity in the widely used Fiat–Shamir heuristic. Her work on delegating computation has applications to cloud computing.

Recognition

Kalai was an invited speaker on mathematical aspects of computer science at the 2018

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the Nevanlinna Prize (to be rename ...

. Her master's thesis introducing

s won an outstanding master's thesis award and MIT PhD dissertation was awarded the George M. Sprowls Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in Computer Science. She was co-chair of the

Theory of Cryptography Conference A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...

in 2017.

Personal

Kalai is the daughter of game theorist

Yair Tauman Yair Tauman ( he, יאיר טאומן; born January 20, 1948) is a Professor of Economics at State University of New York, Stony Brook and the Director of the Stony Brook Center for Game Theory. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem ...

. Her husband, Adam Tauman Kalai, also works at Microsoft Research.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalai, Yael Tauman Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American cryptographers American computer scientists Israeli cryptographers Israeli computer scientists American women computer scientists Theoretical computer scientists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Weizmann Institute of Science alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Georgia Tech faculty American women academics 21st-century American women