About Me

I am an Assistant Professor at the Computer Science and Engineering Dept. of UC Santa Cruz. My research focuses on applied cryptography, security & privacy, and secure databases/systems. My goal is to bridge the gap between cryptography/security and real-world systems/databases by working in both areas; aiming to build cryptographic solutions and real systems that are simultaneously practical, efficient, and provably secure.

Before joining UCSC, I was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the EECS Dept. of UC Berkeley working with Prof. Raluca Ada Popa. I received my Ph.D. from the ECE Dept. of the University of Maryland, advised by Prof. Charalampos Papamanthou. I obtained my ECE Diploma and M.Sc at the Technical University of Crete, under the supervision of Minos Garofalakis.

I am the recipient of the ACM SIGSAC Doctoral Dissertation Award Runner-up, Distinguished Dissertation Award (University of Maryland), and the Symantec Research Labs Graduate Fellowship. I have also been at the Crypto Group of Visa Research, the Research Labs of Symantec, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and the Microsoft Research Labs as a PhD intern.

If you are interested you are encouraged to inform me directly about your intent to apply. Send your CV, a short description of your research experience and interests, and a link to your personal website (if any). Click here for more information.