Rate My Professor Christian Schaffner

Christian Schaffner is Professor in Theoretical Computer Science at the Informatics Institute in the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam, serving as group leader of the Theory of Computer Science (TCS) group. He earned a Diploma in Mathematics from ETH Zurich in 2003, specializing in Stochastics and Theoretical Computer Science, and a PhD in Computer Science from Aarhus University in 2007, with a thesis entitled 'Cryptography in the Bounded Quantum-Storage Model' supervised by Louis Salvail and Ivan Damgård. His academic career includes a postdoctoral position at CWI Amsterdam from 2007 to 2011 under Harry Buhrman, followed by roles at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam: postdoc from 2011 to 2013, Assistant Professor from 2013 to 2018, Associate Professor from 2018 to 2021, and full Professor at the Informatics Institute since December 2021. Schaffner is director of QuSoft, the Dutch research center for quantum software in collaboration with CWI and the University of Amsterdam, chairman of Quantum.Amsterdam since September 2020, and chairman of the Talent & Outreach Committee of the Quantum Software Consortium. He obtained the Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs certification in 2014 and has secured major grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, including a VENI grant in 2010, a VIDI grant in 2015, and a 21.5 million Euro Gravitation Grant in 2024 for the Challenges in Cyber Security project.