Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
University of California, Santa Barbara
Research interests: classical and quantum cryptography
Email: prabhanjan at cs dot ucsb dot eduÂ
2026
Non-Interactive MPC, Revisited
with Divyanshu Bhardwaj and Aparna Gupte
QCrypt 2026 · TCC 2026
Less is More: On Copy Complexity in Quantum Cryptography
with Eli Goldin
CRYPTO 2026 · QIP 2026
Copy-Protection from UPO, Revisited [video]
with Amit Behera, Zikuan Huang, Fuyuki Kitagawa, and Takashi Yamakawa
EUROCRYPT 2026
Gluing Random Unitaries with Inverses and Applications to Strong Pseudorandom Unitaries
with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, and Yao-Ting Lin
QIP 2026
Classically impossible cryptography
Nature Physics 22, 184–185 · News & Views
Non-Local Search-to-Decision Reduction over F2
Preprint
Unconditional Unclonable Encryption
with Amit Sahai
Preprint
A Note on Single-Server QPIR from One-Way Functions
with Divyanshu Bhardwaj and Aditya Gulati
Preprint
2025
On the Limitations of Pseudorandom Unitaries
with Aditya Gulati and Yao-Ting Lin
TCC 2025
Revocable Encryption, Programs, and More: The Case of Multi-Copy Security
with Saachi Mutreja and Alexander Poremba
ITC 2025
Pseudorandom Unitaries in the Haar Random Oracle Model [video]
with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, and Yao-Ting Lin
CRYPTO 2025
Ideal Pseudorandom Codes [video]
with Omar Alrabiah, Miranda Christ, Yevgeniy Dodis, and Sam Gunn
STOC 2025 · Invited to the SICOMP special issue for STOC 2025
Pseudorandomness in the (Inverseless) Haar Random Oracle Model [video]
with John Bostanci, Aditya Gulati, and Yao-Ting Lin
EUROCRYPT 2025
Simultaneous Haar Indistinguishability with Applications to Unclonable Cryptography [video]
with Fatih Kaleoglu and Henry Yuen
ITCS 2025
Post-Quantum Zero-Knowledge with Space-Bounded Simulation [video]
with Alex B. Grilo
LATINCRYPT 2025
Cryptography in the Common Haar State Model: Feasibility Results and Separations [video]
with Aditya Gulati and Yao-Ting Lin
QIP 2025
Copy-Protecting Puncturable Functionalities, Revisited [video]
with Amit Behera and Zikuan Huang
TQC 2025
2024
Cryptography in the Common Haar State Model: Feasibility Results and Separations [video]
with Aditya Gulati and Yao-Ting Lin
TCC 2024
Quantum Key-Revocable Dual-Regev Encryption, Revisited [video]
with Zihan Hu and Zikuan Huang
TCC 2024
Unclonable Secret Sharing [video]
with Vipul Goyal, Jiahui Liu, and Qipeng Liu
ASIACRYPT 2024
NIZKs with Maliciously Chosen CRS: Subversion Advice-ZK and Accountable Soundness
with Gilad Asharov, Vipul Goyal, Hadar Kaner, Pratik Soni, and Brent Waters
SCN 2024
A Modular Approach to Unclonable Cryptography [video]
with Amit Behera
CRYPTO 2024
Pseudorandom Isometries [video]
with Aditya Gulati, Fatih Kaleoglu, and Yao-Ting Lin
EUROCRYPT 2024
Pseudorandom Strings from Pseudorandom Quantum States [video]
with Yao-Ting Lin and Henry Yuen
ITCS 2024
Provable Robust Watermarking for AI-Generated Text
with Xuandong Zhao, Lei Li, and Yu-Xiang Wang
ICLR 2024
ORTOA: A Family of One Round Trip Protocols For Operation-Type Obliviousness
with Sujaya Maiyya, Yuval Steinhart, Adrian Davila, Jason Du, Divyakant Agrawal, and Amr El Abbadi
EDBT 2024
2023
Revocable Cryptography from Learning with Errors [video]
with Alexander Poremba and Vinod Vaikuntanathan
TCC 2023
On the (Im)Plausibility of Public-Key Quantum Money from Collision-Resistant Hash Functions [video]
with Zihan Hu and Henry Yuen
ASIACRYPT 2023
Cloning Games: A General Framework for Unclonable Primitives [video]
with Fatih Kaleoglu and Qipeng Liu
CRYPTO 2023 · QCRYPT 2023
Pseudorandom Quantum States, Revisited: New Properties, Variants, Constructions, and Cryptographic Applications [video]
with Aditya Gulati, Luowen Qian, and Henry Yuen
QIP 2023 (short plenary talk)
On the Feasibility of Unclonable Encryption, and More [video]
with Fatih Kaleoglu, Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu, and Mark Zhandry
QIP 2023 (contributed talk)
2022
Pseudorandom (Function-Like) Quantum State Generators: New Definitions and Applications [video]
with Aditya Gulati, Luowen Qian, and Henry Yuen
TCC 2022 · QCRYPT 2022
Collusion-Resistant Functional Encryption for RAMs [video]
with Kai-Min Chung, Xiong Fan, and Luowen Qian
ASIACRYPT 2022
Cryptography from Pseudorandom Quantum States [video]
with Luowen Qian and Henry Yuen
CRYPTO 2022 · QCRYPT 2022
On the Feasibility of Unclonable Encryption, and More [video]
with Fatih Kaleoglu, Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu, and Mark Zhandry
CRYPTO 2022
Pre-Constrained Encryption [video]
with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, and Giulio Malavolta
ITCS 2022
A Note on Copy-Protection from Random Oracles
with Fatih Kaleoglu
Quantum Cryptography Workshop 2022
2021
Unclonable Encryption, Revisited [video]
with Fatih Kaleoglu
TCC 2021
On the Concurrent Composition of Quantum Zero-Knowledge [video]
with Kai-Min Chung and Rolando L. La Placa
CRYPTO 2021
Secure Software Leasing [video]
with Rolando L. La Placa
EUROCRYPT 2021 · QIP 2021
Towards Accountability in CRS Generation [video]
with Gilad Asharov, Hila Dahari, and Vipul Goyal
EUROCRYPT 2021 · Journal of Cryptology 2025
Unbounded MPC from Learning with Errors [video]
with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, and Giulio Malavolta
EUROCRYPT 2021
2020
Secure Quantum Extraction Protocols [video]
with Rolando L. La Placa
TCC 2020
Multi-key Fully-Homomorphic Encryption in the Plain Model [video]
with Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, and Giulio Malavolta
TCC 2020
Towards Efficiency Preserving Round-Compression Compilers in MPC [video]
with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel, and Abhishek Jain
ASIACRYPT 2020
2019
Optimal Bounded-Collusion Secure Functional Encryption [video]
with Vinod Vaikuntanathan
TCC 2019
Fully Homomorphic NIZK and NIWI Proofs [video]
with Apoorvaa Deshpande, Yael Tauman Kalai, and Anna Lysyanskaya
TCC 2019
From FE Combiners to Secure MPC and Back [video]
with Saikrishna Badrinarayanan, Aayush Jain, Nathan Manohar, and Amit Sahai
TCC 2019
Towards Attribute-Based Encryption from LWE: Sublinear Decryption and More
with Xiong Fan and Elaine Shi
ASIACRYPT 2019
Indistinguishability Obfuscation Without Multilinear Maps: New Paradigms via Low Degree Weak Pseudorandomness and Security Amplification [video]
with Aayush Jain, Huijia Lin, Christian Matt, and Amit Sahai
CRYPTO 2019
Two Round Information-Theoretic MPC with Malicious Security [video]
with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel, and Abhishek Jain
EUROCRYPT 2019
2018
Succinct Garbling Schemes from Functional Encryption through a Local Simulation Paradigm
with Alex Lombardi
TCC 2018
Private Circuits: A Modular Approach [video]
with Yuval Ishai and Amit Sahai
CRYPTO 2018
Round-Optimal Secure Multiparty Computation with Honest Majority [video]
with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel, and Abhishek Jain
CRYPTO 2018
2017
On Secure Two-Party Computation in Three Rounds
with Abhishek Jain
TCC 2017
A New Approach to Round-Optimal Secure Multiparty Computation [video]
with Arka Rai Choudhuri, Aarushi Goel, and Abhishek Jain
CRYPTO 2017
Indistinguishability Obfuscation for Turing Machines: Constant Overhead and Amortization [video]
with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai
CRYPTO 2017
Projective Arithmetic Functional Encryption and Indistinguishability Obfuscation From Degree-5 Multilinear Maps [video]
with Amit Sahai
EUROCRYPT 2017
Cryptography with Updates [video]
with Aloni Cohen and Abhishek Jain
EUROCRYPT 2017
Patchable Indistinguishability Obfuscation: iO for Evolving Software [video]
with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai
EUROCRYPT 2017
Robust Transforming Combiners from Indistinguishability Obfuscation to Functional Encryption [video]
with Aayush Jain and Amit Sahai
EUROCRYPT 2017
2016
Delegating RAM Computations with Adaptive Soundness and Privacy
with Yu-Chi Chen, Kai-Min Chung, Huijia Lin, and Wei-Kai Lin
TCC 2016-B
Universal Obfuscation and Witness Encryption: Boosting Correctness and Combining Security [video]
with Aayush Jain, Moni Naor, Amit Sahai, and Eylon Yogev
CRYPTO 2016
Functional Encryption for Turing Machines
with Amit Sahai
TCC 2016-A
2015
Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Compact Functional Encryption [video]
with Abhishek Jain
CRYPTO 2015
From Selective to Adaptive Security in Functional Encryption [video]
with Zvika Brakerski, Gil Segev, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan
CRYPTO 2015
Preprints
Indistinguishability Obfuscation from Functional Encryption for Simple Functions
with Abhishek Jain and Amit Sahai
Preprint
2014
Optimizing Obfuscation: Avoiding Barrington's Theorem
with Divya Gupta, Yuval Ishai, and Amit Sahai
ACM CCS 2014
Interactive Proofs under Continual Memory Leakage [video]
with Vipul Goyal and Omkant Pandey
CRYPTO 2014
Achieving Privacy in Verifiable Computation with Multiple Servers; Without FHE and without Pre-processing
with Nishanth Chandran, Vipul Goyal, Bhavana Kanukurthi, and Rafail Ostrovsky
PKC 2014
Lower Bounds in the Hardware Token Model
with Shashank Agrawal, Vipul Goyal, Manoj Prabhakaran, and Alon Rosen
TCC 2014
2013
On the (In)security of Fischlin's Paradigm
with Raghav Bhaskar, Vipul Goyal, and Vanishree Rao
TCC 2013
Non Observability in the Random Oracle Model
with Raghav Bhaskar
ProvSec 2013
Preprints
Differing-Inputs Obfuscation and Applications
with Dan Boneh, Sanjam Garg, Amit Sahai, and Mark Zhandry
Preprint
2012
Complexity of Gröbner Basis Detection and Border Basis Detection
with Ambedkar Dukkipati
Theoretical Computer Science 2012
An Algebraic Characterization of Rainbow Connectivity
with Ambedkar Dukkipati
CASC 2012
2011
Rainbow Connectivity: Hardness and Tractability
with Meghana Nasre and Kanthi K. Sarpatwar
FSTTCS 2011
Border Basis Detection is NP-Complete
with Ambedkar Dukkipati
ISSAC 2011
Undergraduate
CS 138: Automata and Formal Languages
(W21, F22, F23, F24, S26)
CS 178: Introduction to Cryptography
(S21, F21, S22, W23, W25, W26, W27)
Graduate
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Cryptography
(W20, S26, W27)
CS 292G: Topics in Quantum Cryptography
(F20, W22)
CS 292G: Graduate Course in Quantum Computing
(S23, S24)
CS 292G: Post-quantum Cryptography
(S25)
Current students
Ph.D.
Divyanshu Bhardwaj
Past students
Ph.D.
Fatih Kaleoglu (first job after graduation: Global Technology Applied Research at JPMorgan Chase)
Undergraduate
Xander Coomes (BS, UCSB)
Zikuan Huang (BS, Tsinghua University)
Siyuan Chen (BS, Tsinghua University)
Zihan Hu (BS, Tsinghua University)
Manu Kondapaneni (BS, UCSB)
Aditya Gulati (BS, IIT Kanpur)
Zackary Glazewski (BS, UCSB)
Rowan-James Tran (BS, UCSB)
Aashay Parab (BS, UCSB)
Anika Arora (BS, UCSB)
Mohit Sharma (IIT Roorkee)
Philip Axelrod (BS, UCSB)
Masters
Hrishikesh Saikia (MS, Chennai Mathematical Institute)
Saikumar Yadugiri (MS, UCSB)
2018: PKC, ASIACRYPT
2020: TCC
2022: PKC, CRYPTO, Quantum Cryptography workshop (co-organized with Asiacrypt 2022)
2023: EUROCRYPT, ITC, TCC
2024: STACS, TCC, ASIACRYPT (area chair)
2025: ITCS, EUROCRYPT, ArcticCrypt, TCC, QCRYPT, ACM QSec Workshop (co-located with ACM CCS)
2026: QIP, SCN, TCC, QCRYPT
Local chair: ITC 2025, ITC 2026
Editorial Board: IACR Communications in Cryptography (2024)
For UCSB visitors: check this out for useful tips to navigate Santa Barbara!
For UCSB students:
If you are interested in taking my course but have not yet enrolled: please meet me right after the first lecture. If you can't make it the first lecture, meet me after the second lecture.
If you have taken one of my courses and interested in receiving a letter of recommendation from me (for BS/MS or Masters): I typically only write letters for students who have secured an A+ in my course and in some rare cases, A. If you have never interacted with me during/after the lectures, it is unlikely that I'll write a letter for you.
If you are interested in doing research: as an undergraduate student, it can be challenging to pursue research. Before deciding on the research area, it is a good first step to understand the research process to make sure that you are comfortable with it. Here are some useful articles:
If you are an undergraduate student interested in pursuing research with me: you should have taken courses CS 138 and CS 178 before reaching out to me. You should have a strong mathematical background and should be comfortable with mathematical proofs. In some rare cases, I'll make an exception.