Photo of Christian Schaffner

I am Professor in Theoretical Computer Science and group leader of the Theory of Computer Science (TCS) group at the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. I'm a member of QuSoft, the Dutch research center for quantum software, located at CWI, the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science. My group is part of the large Amsterdam TCS community and forms the core of the QuSoft research line "Cryptography in a Quantum World".

We are looking for a PhD student on the topic of Side-Channel Attacks on Quantum Devices Used in Quantum Networks. Apply at the UvA website, or send me an email.

Sign up for the Quantum Cryptography June project I'm teaching with Florian Speelman and Sebastian Zur!

On Friday, 30 September 2022, I will give my inaugural lecture as professor in theoretical computer science.

Since September 2020, I am the chairman of Quantum.Amsterdam, an innovation hub for quantum software, technology and applications.

I am the chairman of the Talent & Outreach Committee of the Quantum Software Consortium (QSC).

With the help of Stacey Jeffery, Ulle Endriss and Wan Fokkink, I have recently created a new overview website of the academic research in theoretical computer science (TCS) carried out in Amsterdam: https://theory.amsterdam.

From January to July 2020, I was on an academic sabbatical catching the Quantum wave in Computing at Simons institute in Berkeley, California.

My research interests are Quantum Cryptography, Cryptographic Protocols, and (Quantum) Information Theory.

I did my PhD in the Cryptology Group at BRICS, Computer Science Department of  Aarhus University. My PhD advisors were Louis Salvail and Ivan Damgård. Before that, I studied mathematics at ETH Zürich and wrote my Diploma thesis under supervision of Renato Renner and Ueli Maurer.

In 2015, I received a personal VIDI grant from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

I was co-organizing the 2021 and 2020 online editions of QCrypt. Before that, I have been a member and chair of the steering committee of the annual QCrypt conference.

I have served on various program committees (CRYPTO 2022, QIP 2022, TCC 2021, ITC 2020, EUROCRYPT 2019, AQIS 2018, PKC 18, CRYPTO 2017, TQC 2016, TQC 2015, EUROCRYPT 2015, QCRYPT 2014, SCN 2014, CRYPTO 2013, QCRYPT 2013, ICITS 2012, QIP 2012, QCRYPT 2011, ICITS 2011, WISSEC 2010 and the cryptography track of RSA 09). I have been on review panels of various grant agencies such as NWO, ANR, QuantERA, etc.

Since March 2018, I am on the editorial board of the Quantum Science and Technology journal, published by IOP.

I have been teaching various courses about cryptography and information theory at the University of Amsterdam. Since spring 2016, I have made positive experiences of teaching courses in fully-flipped-classroom style. Check, e.g., this report, or this interview.

In my spare time, I enjoy playing Ultimate Frisbee and tennis.

Since recently, you can