PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Anna Lysyanskaya, assistant professor of computer science at Brown University, has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as one of the world’s top innovators under the age of 35 for her work in cryptography, identity verification, and privacy protection.
Selected from more than 300 nominees by a panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review, the TR35 List of Young Innovators is an elite group of accomplished young innovators who exemplify the spirit of innovation in business, technology and the arts.
“The TR35 honors young innovators for accomplishments that are poised to have a dramatic impact on the world as we know it,” said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review. “We celebrate their success and look forward to their continued advancement of technology in their respective fields.”
Each week, new reports of compromised corporate databases and online invasions of privacy are in the news. As personal information is stored in more locations, consumers experience more identity theft, feel greater intrusion into personal privacy, and lose confidence in on-line commerce.
In collaboration with Jan Camenisch at IBM, Lysyanskaya laid out the theory that allows authentication without identification, now incorporated into the Idemix software soon to be available through the Eclipse Open Source Foundation’s Project Higgins.
In particular, based on Lysyanskaya’s insight, the team developed a compact, computationally efficient method of authenticating a particular user’s right to access a particular resource without ever knowing the user’s identity. Lysyanskaya has also developed a similar algorithm for online cash transactions.
“Loss of confidence in online privacy and security poses a growing threat to Internet commerce, information exchange and even civic involvement,” said Roberto Tamassia, chair of computer science at Brown University. “Anna’s creative approach to identity verification helps restore an expectation of privacy to our online lives.”
Lysyanskaya and the other TR35 winners for 2007 will be featured in the September issue of Technology Review and honored at the Emerging Technologies Conference to be held at MIT Sept. 25-27, 2007.
Additional information about past and present TR35 winners and judges, as well as information about the upcoming Emerging Technologies Conference, is available online at the Technology Review Web site: www.technologyreview.com/tr35/.
About Technology Review
Technology Review Inc., an independent media company owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, identifies emerging technologies and analyzes their impact for leaders. Technology Review’s media properties include Technology Review magazine, the oldest technology magazine in the world (founded in 1899); the daily news Web site TechnologyReview.com; and events such as the annual Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT. For additional information, contact Sarah Mees at (617) 682-3759 or [email protected].