Alireza Shirzad

Hi! I’m Alireza. I am a Ph.D. student of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where I am a member of the Security and Privacy Lab. I am fortunate to be advised by Pratyush Mishra.

I’m interested in applied cryptography and building provably secure systems for real-world applications. Most of my work is on succinct proof systems: SNARKs, polynomial commitment schemes, and the things one can build with them, from transparent key directories to verifiable databases.

Previously, I was a research intern at Lagrange, hosted by Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou and Dimitris Papadopoulos.

Before joining Penn, I earned a master’s degree in Secure Communication and Cryptography from Sharif University of Technology, where I worked with Dr. Taraneh Eghlidos. I received my bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (with a Computer Science minor) from the same university.