Computer Sciences Colloquium - Basic science, changing the world and cryptography: a tale of the last 40+years

Abstract:

Computers and computer science have changed our world. The applications are boundless: online communication, commerce, and content distribution; search; better ways to do science and rengineering; improving medical care and research; self driving cars; improving infrastructure; new forms of art...Need I go on ?

At the basis of all of these are ideas stemming from basic curiosity driven research , which 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, fully homonorphic encryption, post-quantum cryptography, and finally distributed public ledgers, better known as block chains.