Rate My Professor Muhammed Esgin

Dr. Muhammed Esgin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity within the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, where he also serves as Course Director for the Master of Cybersecurity program and Deputy Director of the Post-Quantum Cryptography in the Indo-Pacific (PQCIP) Program. He earned his PhD in Cybersecurity from Monash University on 12 May 2020, with a thesis titled "Practice-Oriented Techniques in Lattice-Based Cryptography," supervised by Ron Steinfeld, Joseph Liu, and Dongxi Liu. Prior to his current appointment, Esgin was a postdoctoral researcher jointly at Monash University and CSIRO's Data61, and he completed a research internship at IBM Research Zurich hosted by Vadim Lyubashevsky. In his teaching roles, he has lectured and tutored units including FIT5124 Advanced Topics in Security, FIT5163 Information and Computer Security, FIT3031 Network Security, and FIT2093 Introduction to Cyber Security, emphasizing privacy-respecting technologies and student confidence-building.

Esgin's research specializes in cybersecurity and cryptography, with a focus on quantum-resistant cryptography, lattice-based cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, blockchain protocols, privacy-preserving protocols, and privacy-enhancing technologies for social good. He has secured funding as Primary Chief Investigator for multiple projects, including ARC Discovery Projects such as "Quantum-Resistant Oblivious Pseudorandom Functions for Practice" (2025), "More Efficient and Scalable Post-Quantum Multi-Signatures" (2024), and grants from Amazon Web Services and Google Research Scholar Award (AU$95,000, 2025). His accolades include the Dean’s Early Career Researcher of the Year Award (Monash Faculty of IT, August 2025), Education Excellence Award and Research Excellence Team Award (Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity, November 2025), Faculty Education Excellence Award for PQCIP (2024), and Best Paper Award for DualRing-PRF at ACISP 2024. Key publications encompass "MatRiCT: efficient, scalable and post-quantum blockchain confidential transactions protocol" (CCS 2019, 93 citations), "Lattice-based zero-knowledge proofs: new techniques for shorter and faster constructions and applications" (CRYPTO 2019, 62 citations), "LUNA: Quasi-Optimally Succinct Designated-Verifier Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Lattices" (CCS 2024), "BulletCT: Towards More Scalable Ring Confidential Transactions With Transparent Setup" (USENIX Security 2025), and "mmCipher: Batching Post-Quantum Public Key Encryption Made Bandwidth-Optimal" (USENIX Security 2026). With over 1,400 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions have advanced post-quantum security standards and earned two patents with CSIRO.