Yael Tauman Kalai
Cryptographer and theoretical computer scientist
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Yael Tauman Kalai (Hebrew: יעל טאומן קלעי) is a cryptographer and theoretical computer scientist and the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor at MIT in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[1] Previously, she worked as a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New England[2][3].
Weizmann Institute (MS)
MIT (PhD)
Insecurity of the Fiat–Shamir heuristic
Delegating computation
Yael Tauman Kalai | |
|---|---|
יעל טאומן קלעי | |
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| Born | |
| Education | Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BSc) Weizmann Institute (MS) MIT (PhD) |
| Known for | Ring signatures Insecurity of the Fiat–Shamir heuristic Delegating computation |
| Relatives | Yair Tauman (father) |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cryptography Theoretical computer science |
| Workplaces | Microsoft Research MIT |
| Shafi Goldwasser | |
Doctoral students | Elette Boyle |
Education and career
Kalai graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1997. She earned a master's degree in 2001 at the Weizmann Institute of Science, working with Adi Shamir, and then completed a PhD advised by Shafi Goldwasser at MIT in 2006. After postdoctoral study at Microsoft Research and the Weizmann Institute, she became a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She took a permanent position at Microsoft Research in 2008[2][3] and became a professor at MIT in 2024.[4] She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.[5]
Contributions
Kalai is known for co-inventing ring signatures, which have become a key component of numerous systems such as Cryptonote and Monero (cryptocurrency).[6][7] Subsequently, together with her advisor Shafi Goldwasser, she demonstrated an insecurity in the widely used Fiat–Shamir heuristic.[8][7] Her work on delegating computation has applications to cloud computing.[9]
Recognition
Kalai was elected a Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research in 2022 for foundational contributions in delegated computation and leakage-resilient cryptography, and service to the cryptographic community.[7]
Kalai was an invited speaker on mathematical aspects of computer science at the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians.[10]
Her master's thesis introducing ring signatures won an outstanding master's thesis award[3] and her MIT PhD dissertation was awarded the George M. Sprowls Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in Computer Science.[3][11]
She was co-chair of the Theory of Cryptography Conference in 2017.[12]
She was awarded the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing "for breakthroughs in verifiable delegation of computation and fundamental contributions to cryptography".[13]
Personal
Kalai is the daughter of game theorist Yair Tauman.[14] Her husband, Adam Tauman Kalai, works at OpenAI.[15][16]