Varun Maram

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Quantum Security Group at SandboxAQ. My current research interests lie in quantum-resistant cryptography, with an emphasis on provable post-quantum security of real-world cryptographic systems. I also have a broader interest in multi-party computation and distributed systems.

Before joining SandboxAQ, I obtained my doctoral degree at ETH Zürich in 2023 where I was part of the Applied Cryptography Group and supervised by Prof. Kenny Paterson. I also obtained a Master’s degree in computer science (with distinction) at ETH Zürich in 2019, and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering (with a minor in mathematics) at IIT Roorkee in 2017.

I’m a member of the team behind Classic McEliece, a key-encapsulation mechanism which is in the fourth round of NIST’s post-quantum cryptography standardization project; the scheme is being considered for ISO standardization as well.

I also interned in the Advanced Cryptography team at Visa Research during the summers of 2021 (remotely from Zürich) and 2022 (in Palo Alto) where I worked on quantum cryptanalysis of symmetric-key primitives and quantum security of standard model public-key encryption schemes respectively.

Outside work, I love (pub) quizzing.