Russell W. F. Lai
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Aalto University
I am an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science of Aalto University since July 2022, where I am part of the Aalto Crypto Group. Before joining Aalto, I obtained my PhD from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2022 (dissertation), and my MPhil and bachelor’s degrees from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
russell.lai [at] aalto [dot] fi
Konemiehentie 2, 02150 Espoo, Finland
Google Scholar · DBLP · ORCID
Research interests
I work on a wide range of topics in cryptography, with focus on its algebraic aspects. Concretely, I exploit algebraic structure to realise advanced cryptographic primitives and to make them practical. Since joining Aalto, my research has focused on lattice-based constructions of advanced cryptographic primitives: succinct arguments, threshold schemes and advanced encryption, from attribute-based and functional encryption up to program obfuscation.
News
- 2026.11 Jaya Sharma is visiting the group.
- 2026.10 Benjamin Benčina joins the group as a postdoc.
- 2026.09 Our work on Tulva, a practical asynchronous threshold fully homomorphic encryption scheme, has been accepted to IEEE S&P 2027.
- 2026.09 Aleksi Kalsta joins the group as a PhD student.
- 2026.08 Two papers accepted to ASIACRYPT 2026.
Selected publications
- Tulva: Practical Asynchronous Threshold FHE
IEEE S&P 2027 - Adaptive Special Soundness: A New Framework for Knowledge Extraction with Applications to Kilian’s Protocol
ASIACRYPT 2026 - RoKoko: Lattice-based Succinct Arguments, a Committed Refinement
ASIACRYPT 2026 - Hardness of Hinted ISIS from the Space-Time Hardness of Lattice Problems
CRYPTO 2026 - Lattice-Based Obfuscation from NTRU and Equivocal LWE
CRYPTO 2025 - Ringtail: Practical Two-Round Threshold Signatures from Learning with Errors
IEEE S&P 2025
Teaching
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CS-E4370 Applied Cryptography,
periods III–IV, every year
An intermediate-level course on basic primitives in public-key cryptography and their plausible real-world applications in privacy-preserving systems. -
CS-E4380 Advanced Cryptography (Lattice-based Cryptography),
periods I–II, every other year
An introductory course on lattice-based cryptography for advanced undergraduates and graduate students.
Education
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PhD in Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, 2022
Dissertation: Succinct Arguments: Constructions and Applications. Advisor: Dominique Schröder. -
MPhil in Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2016
Thesis: Secure Delegation of Parallel Computation. Advisor: Sherman S. M. Chow. - BEng in Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014
- BSc in Mathematics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014