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.

Schaffner's research specializes in quantum cryptography, cryptographic protocols, and quantum information theory, leading the QuSoft research line 'Cryptography in a Quantum World.' Key publications include the highly cited 'Leftover Hashing Against Quantum Side Information' with Marco Tomamichel, Adam Smith, and Renato Renner (IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, 2011) and 'Cryptography in the Bounded Quantum-Storage Model' with Ivan Damgård, Serge Fehr, and Louis Salvail (SIAM Journal of Computing, 2008). Recent contributions appear in premier venues such as 'Quantum Fully Homomorphic Encryption With Verification' with Gorjan Alagic, Yfke Dulek, and Florian Speelman (ASIACRYPT 2017), 'Security of the Fiat-Shamir Transformation in the Quantum Random-Oracle Model' with Jelle Don, Serge Fehr, and Christian Majenz (CRYPTO 2019), and 'Online-Extractability in the Quantum Random-Oracle Model' (EUROCRYPT 2022). His work has garnered over 6,000 citations on Google Scholar. Schaffner has chaired the program committee of QCrypt 2023, served on program committees for CRYPTO 2022, QIP 2022, EUROCRYPT 2019, and others, and was on the editorial board of Quantum Science and Technology from 2018 to 2022. Since spring 2016, he has taught cryptography and information theory courses at the University of Amsterdam using a fully flipped-classroom style.