Léo Ducas

Full Name
Prof.dr. L. Ducas
Phone
+31 20 592 4250
Room
M260
Department(s)
Function(s)
Researcher, Professor - Universiteit Leiden
Homepage
Léo Ducas

Biography

I have obtained my PhD at ENS Paris, on the topic of Lattice-based Cryptography. After a post-doc at UCSD, I have joined CWI in 2015. I obtained a VENI grant in 2016, and started a tenure-track at CWI in 2017.

Research

I do research on cryptology, and I am more specifically interested in theoretical and practical aspects of lattice-based cryptography.

I am involved in the design of fast algorithms for use in lattice-based cryptographic protocols, and in the design of optimized cryptographic protocols for practice. This work includes candidates Quantum-safe protocols  for the NIST standardization competition (NewHope, Frodo, Kyber, Dilithium).

I am also interested the precise security estimations of lattice problems, the fine tuning of cryptanalytic algorithm and their implementation. In particular I am very active in the development of the FPLLL lattice reduction library, so as to test in practice the latest algorithmic advances, but also to provide useful tools for prototyping new algorithms.

I have also contributed to quantum cryptanalysis of lattice-based schemes, showing that not all lattices problems are equally resistant to quantum computing.

Publications

All publications

Awards

  • USENIX and Facebook "Internet Defense Prize" - For Newhope, joint work with Erdem Alkim, Thomas Poppelmann, Peter Schwabe (2016)

Professional activities

  • Professor: Mathematical Institute, Leiden University

Current projects with external funding

  • A Reduction Theory for Codes and Lattices in Cryptography (ARTICULATE)