{{Short description|Italian computer scientist}} {{Notability|1=Academics|date=January 2025}} '''Alessandro Chiesa''' is an Italian computer scientist. He is an associate professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), and a now-adjunct professor at University of California, Berkeley. He has contributed to the field of zero-knowledge proofs, and was a co-founder of Zcash and StarkWare Industries.<ref name="homepage" />
== Biography == Chiesa was born in Varese, Italy in 1987. He studied math and computer science at MIT, where he earned his SB, MEng and PhD. His PhD was in theory of computation, advised by Silvio Micali at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.<ref name="homepage">{{Cite web |title=Alessandro Chiesa |url=https://ic-people.epfl.ch/~achiesa/}}</ref>
Chiesa became an assistant professor at UC Berkeley in 2015. In 2018 he was named in MIT's Innovators Under 35 list.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alessandro Chiesa |url=https://people.epfl.ch/alessandro.chiesa?lang=en}}</ref> In 2021 he became an associate professor at EPFL.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CS Faculty List |url=https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Faculty/Lists/CS/faculty.html}}</ref>
== Research == In 2013, Chiesa coauthored a paper and implementation of TinyRAM, a virtual machine whose execution could be proven using zero-knowledge proofs.<ref>{{Cite conference |title=SNARKs for C: Verifying Program Executions Succinctly and in Zero Knowledge |conference=CRYPTO 2013 |last1=Ben-Sasson |first1=Eli |last2=Chiesa |first2=Alessandro |last3=Genkin |first3=Daniel |last4=Tromer |first4=Eran |last5=Virza |first5=Madars}}</ref>
In 2014, Chiesa coauthored the design of Zerocash,<ref>{{Cite conference |title=Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin |last1=Ben-Sasson | first1=Eli |last2=Chiesa |first2=Alessandro |last3=Garman |first3=Christina |last4=Green |first4=Matthew |last5=Miers |first5=Ian |last6=Eran |first6=Tromer |last7=Virza |first7=Madars |conference=2014 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy}}</ref> which laid the foundation for the Zcash protocol. The work was recognized by the Test of Time Award at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.<ref name="test of time">{{Cite web |title=45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy |url=https://sp2024.ieee-security.org/awards.html}}</ref>
In 2020, Chiesa coauthored the design of Zexe, a related protocol which drew on ideas from Zerocash and extended it to arbitrary computations.<ref>{{Cite conference |title=Zexe: Enabling decentralized private computation |last1=Bowe |first1=Sean |last2=Chiesa |first2=Alessandro |last3=Green |first3=Matthew |last4=Miers |first4=Ian |last5=Mishra |first5=Pratyush |last6=Wu |first6=Howard |conference=2020 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP)}}</ref> The Zexe design became the foundation of a blockchain called Aleo.<ref>{{Cite conference |title=SoK: Privacy-Preserving Computing in the Blockchain Era |last1=Almashaqbeh |first1=Ghada |last2=Solomon |first2=Ravital |conference=2022 IEEE 7th European Symposium on Security and Privacy}}</ref>
== Awards == * Google Faculty Research Awards (2018 and 2017)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Faculty research awards program (2005 - 2019) |url=https://research.google/programs-and-events/past-programs/faculty-research-awards/}}</ref> * Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2020)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alessandro Chiesa receives 2020 Okawa Research Grant |url=https://eecs.berkeley.edu/news/alessandro-chiesa-receives-2020-okawa-research-grant/}}</ref> * Sloan Research Fellowship (2021)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alessandro Chiesa named 2021 Sloan Research Fellow |url=https://eecs.berkeley.edu/news/alessandro-chiesa-named-2021-sloan-research-fellow/}}</ref> * IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Test-of-Time Award (2024)<ref name="test of time" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://ic-people.epfl.ch/~achiesa/ Homepage]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiesa, Alessandro}} Category:Living people Category:Modern cryptographers Category:Italian cryptographers Category:People associated with cryptocurrency Category:Year of birth missing (living people)