Hi! My Chinese name is 陈杉. I am a tenure-track associate professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 深圳, China. Before joining SUSTech in 2022, I earned my Ph.D. degree from Georgia Tech under the supervision of Alexandra (Sasha) Boldyreva and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Cryptoplexity group led by Marc Fischlin. I started my cryptography research during my master’s studies, where I was fortunate to be advised by John Steinberger.

My research interests include cryptography and information security, with a current focus on real-world cryptography, as well as theoretical cryptography that shows strong potential for real-world applications. I am most passionate about analyzing deployed or soon-to-be-deployed security protocols and cryptographic primitives to develop provably secure and practically efficient cryptographic solutions.

I am seeking self-motivated students and postdocs for our Applied Cryptography Group. If you are truly passionate about cryptography research, please feel free to contact me.
If your primary goal is simply to earn a graduate degree, please consider other fields — cryptography is demanding and requires genuine dedication.

* If you are curious about my advising style, this article about the Ph.D. experience may give you an idea, as I aim for a similar approach; a master’s experience is a simplified version of it, roughly aligning with the first phase of the Ph.D. journey.