On September 28, Nikolay Kaleyski defended his PhD thesis titled Towards a deeper understanding of APN functions and related longstanding problems. More information can be found here.
One PhD – Nine articles for secure communication
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on Thor Martinsen to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award for visiting the Selmer Center
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U.S. Navy Cmdr. Thor Martinsen, an applied mathematics professor, has become the first Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Permanent Military Professor (PMP) to receive a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award that will allow him to visit the Selmer Center at the University of Bergen (UiB) in Norway and collaborate on cryptographic Boolean functions research during the 2021-2022 academic year.
The BoolTI project under Lilya Budaghyan
on BoolTI is the newest project at the Selmer center, with Lilya Budaghyan as the PI and a budget of 10.5 MNOK for the period 2021-2024. Other key members are Claude Carlet, George Petrides, and Vincent Rijmen.
Cryptographic ciphers serve the very important function of securing our every day communication and data against unauthorised access. They are in use everywhere: web-browsers, mobile phones, payment cards, tv-decoders, smart cards, etc. The fact that more and more of them are now run in embedded devices makes the rather recent side channel attacks (SCA) a huge threat: unwanted information leakage during the execution of the algorithms could potentially compromise their security. The project will study Boolean functions used as building blocks in cryptographic ciphers in order to find ways to prevent SCA.
George Boole prize for Sihem Mesnager
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The George Boole International Prize for 2020 has been awarded to Sihem Mesnager, for her significant contributions to the theory of Boolean functions. Congratulations!
Claude Carlet’s new book on cryptographic Boolean functions
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Claude Carlet’s comprehensive new monograph on the topic of i.a. cryptographic Boolean functions is published by Cambridge University Press. The book constitutes a significant expansion of Claude’s previous text on the topic, and aims to be an encyclopedic guide to the foundations and recent results in the area.
Lilya Budaghyan – Interview with the Trond Mohn Foundation
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Lilya Budaghyan, leader of the Boolean Functions Team, receives the Trond Mohn Foundation Starting Grant from 2017 to 2021 for the research project Construction of Optimal Boolean Functions.
In a recent interview with the TMS, she explained content of her project and talked about the progress in the project.
Vincent Rijmen receives RSA award for excellence in mathematics
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Professor Vincent Rijmen, best known as one of the designers of the ubiquitously used Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), has received the RSA award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics. The award “recognizes innovation and ongoing contributions to the field of cryptography and mathematics”. More information can be found at the RSA conference website. Congratulations!
The Ernst Selmer National Event
on In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Prof. Ernst Sejersted Selmer, the 11th of February, from 08:00 to 16:00, the Ernst Selmer National Event will be held in the auditorium at Vilvite, in Bergen. It will gather national collaborators, representatives from the government, the University of Bergen, and other organizations.
The event is organised by the Selmer Center and Simula@UiB.
Talks by Honorary Doctor Anne Canteaut
on Following the official awards ceremony on October 15 at which she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Bergen, Anne Canteaut gave two talks on the topic of cryptography and cryptanalysis: “Cryptanalysis – a never-ending story” on October 16, and “Lightweight cryptography – when cryptography meets mathematics” on October 17, respectively.
Speed-talk at department seminar
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Nikolay Kaleyski gave a “speed-talk” on Boolean functions in cryptography at the department seminar today. A PDF copy of the slides is available.