# Alessandro Chiesa

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alessandro_Chiesa
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alessandro_Chiesa.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Chiesa
> Source revision: 1303343769
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{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](/source/%C3%89cole_Polytechnique_F%C3%A9d%C3%A9rale_de_Lausanne) (EPFL), and a now-adjunct professor at [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley). He has contributed to the field of [zero-knowledge proofs](/source/zero-knowledge_proofs), and was a co-founder of [Zcash](/source/Zcash) and [StarkWare Industries](/source/StarkWare_Industries).<ref name="homepage" />

== Biography ==
Chiesa was born in [Varese](/source/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](/source/theory_of_computation), advised by [Silvio Micali](/source/Silvio_Micali) at the [MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Zcash) protocol. The work was recognized by the Test of Time Award at the [IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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)

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alessandro Chiesa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Chiesa) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alessandro_Chiesa?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.