From Basic Idea to Impact: The Story of Modern Cryptography

Computer science inventions impact every aspect of our life. At the basis of these inventions are ideas, stemming from curiosity-driven research, which have eventually found unimaginable applications, and morphed the world. In this talk, I will highlight this progression from idea to impact in the field of cryptography in the last 40 some years, starting from public key cryptography through zero knowledge, multi-party secure collaborations, post-quantum cryptography, and distributed public ledgers. The next frontier may be the role of cryptography in the safe use of machine learning. We will discuss an entirely new set of related challenges and opportunities.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of computer science at UC Berkeley and the university’s sesquicentennial, EECS and the Simons Institute are launching a special series of lectures by winners of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, considered the field’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize. In addition to their technical talk, the lecturers will reflect on their time at UC Berkeley and look toward the future of research and technological development in their fields.

Light refreshments will be served before the lecture at 2:30 p.m.