Invited Speakers

Willy Quach: CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security

Title: The Power and Limits of Indistinguishability Obfuscation

Abstract: Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) is often regarded as an all-powerful primitive in cryptography: almost every known cryptographic primitive has a construction based on iO.
In this talk, we explore some of the limits of iO-based cryptography. The first is quantitative: security proofs for both constructions and applications of iO are often highly non-tight. We discuss the sources of these losses and potential paths to overcome them. The second limit is qualitative: many applications of iO rely on additional assumptions, such as LWE. We discuss to what extent such additional assumptions are necessary.


Brief CV: Willy is a tenure-track faculty at CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security. He is broadly interested in the theory and foundations of cryptography. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science, hosted by Zvika Brakerski, and obtained his PhD in 2023 at Northeastern University, where he was advised by Daniel Wichs.
Dakshita Khurana: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Title: Quantum-Native Assumptions in Cryptography

Abstract: This talk will provide a guided tour of Quantum-Native Assumptions in Cryptography. We will discuss why researchers have been led to consider quantum-native assumptions, how these assumptions differ from standard post-quantum assumptions, and what kinds of cryptographic and complexity-theoretic phenomena they help explain. We will survey a handful of recent proposals, comparing their motivations, known evidence, and applications. The goal is to give a high-level map of the area: what the main families of quantum assumptions look like, what we currently understand about their plausibility, and what challenges remain in developing a mature theory of quantum cryptographic hardness.

Brief CV: Dakshita is ​Associate Professor of Computer Science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Senior Scientist at NTT Research. She is, among the others, the recipient of NSF Career Award in 2023. She has more than 50 scientific publications and has been on program committees of many international conferences (including STOC, CRYPTO, TCC and Eurocrypt). She has been area chair for CRYPTO 2025.

Dakshita received a PhD in 2018 from UCLA. She has been postdoctoral researcher in Microsoft Research from 2018 to 2019.

Dakshita research focuses on theoretical foundations of cryptography and its interactions with quantum information.