KAIST professor elected international fellow

By Kang Seung-woo

Kim Kwang-jo, a professor of computer science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was named a fellow of the International Association of Cryptologic Research (IACR).

The non-profit scientific organization formed the fellows program in 2004 and since then, 64 cryptographers have been awarded the fellowship.

This year, the IACR selected four more fellows together with Kim.

Kim, 60, is the first Korean to get the honor - Japan and Australia had been the only two countries in the Asia-Pacific region to produce IACR fellows - two for each.

Kim has been recognized for “cryptographic design, education, and leadership, and for exemplary service to IACR and the Asia-Pacific cryptographic community,” the association said on its website.

Kim, who has published more than 80 science citation index (SCI) level papers, served as director of the IACR, chair of the Asiacrypt Steering Committee, president of the Korea Institute of Information Security and Technology and visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“It is a huge honor that my 34 years of study on cryptology and commitment to the IACR were recognized and awarded the fellowship that renowned scholars have been offered,” Kim said.

“I plan to commit to nurturing talents in national cybersecurity.”

The IACR is a non-profit scientific organization, established in 1981, whose purpose is to further research in cryptology and related fields. Cryptology is the science and practice of designing computation and communication systems which are secure from adversaries.

The IACR organizes three main international conferences in cryptology each year - Crypto, Eurocrypt and Asiacrypt -and four annual specialist workshops - Theory of Cryptography Conference, Public Key Cryptography, Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems and Transactions on Symmetric Crypto.