I have spent some of the most memorable years of my life attending graduate school at UCLA and I have numerous people to thank for it. First, and foremost, I would like to thank my advisors, Rafail Ostrovsky and Amit Sahai, for showing...
moreI have spent some of the most memorable years of my life attending graduate school at UCLA and I have numerous people to thank for it. First, and foremost, I would like to thank my advisors, Rafail Ostrovsky and Amit Sahai, for showing faith in me and taking me as their student when I had only enthusiasm to show for on my resume. Over the years, Rafi and Amit have provided me continuous support and inspiration, and I feel very fortunate to have had them as my advisors. I look forward to having more opportunities to learn from and work with them in the future. Rafi's breadth of knowledge in theoretical computer science is remarkable, and so is his ability to draw interesting connections between seemingly unrelated concepts. Indeed, the latter is, in my opinion, the magic secret behind his amazing ability to find one excellent research problem after another. Like all my crypto colleagues at UCLA, I have benefited greatly from this. Rafi is a constant source of energy and inspiration -nothing exemplifies this better than the fact that a typical day in Rafi's life consists of multiple(!) productive research meetings, and more. I was lucky to be Rafi's student and I sincerely thank him for his invaluable advice and support throughout my PhD. Amit is one of the most brilliant people I have met. Among his many wonderful qualities, most striking is his magical ability to understand my chaotic thoughts (even when I don't understand them myself) and elevate them to clear, organized ideas. Amit has taught me how to think intuitively, and how to discard a "bad idea" quickly before it can lead one astray. I owe him greatly for my evolution as a researcher. Amit has helped me in making many important decisions, and I am thankful for his advice on career and life. Outside work, Amit and his ix wife, Pragati, provided all of us a home away from home, by inviting us to join in celebration of Indian festivals like Diwali. It has been a privilege being Amit's student and I am going to miss the experience. I cannot thank enough Vipul Goyal and Omkant Pandey for their friendship and continued support in my research career. Vipul introduced me to the world of research even before I started graduate school, and I thank him for mentoring me during my early years at UCLA. Over the years, Vipul has had a huge impact on my research career, and I thank him for always being there. (I only ask him that we eat at California Pizza Kitchen a little less often.) Omkant and Vipul taught me a lot about zero-knowledge and secure computation, and I thank them for answering my endless questions on these topics patiently. Omkant also taught me how to write better papers. I owe Omkant a spicy bowl of dal with garlic for all his help over the years. I would like to thank Krzysztof Pietrzak and all the members of the cryptography group at CWI Amsterdam, including Ronald Cramer, Serge Fehr and Eike Kiltz, for hosting me during two visits. Krzysztof is freakishly smart and also one of the most fun people to have around. I thank him for helping me diversify my research interests and for several fruitful collaborations. Outside work, Krzysztof took me to the best bars and restaurants and made sure I had the best time in Amsterdam. I thank Tal Rabin and all the members of the cryptography group at IBM T. J. Watson research center -David Cash, Rosario Gennaro, Craig Gentry, Shai Halevi, Hugo Krawczyk, Charanjit Jutla and Daniel Wichs -for hosting me during a summer internship. Tal is one of the most genuine person I have ever met and I am thankful for her kindness, continued support and interest in my career. I thank Daniel for being such a wonderful collaborator. x I would like to thank Yael Tauman Kalai for hosting me during my visits to Microsoft Research New England. Yael is a role model for me, and I wish I could emulate her work ethic. The amount of work that she manages to get done in the limited twenty-four hours of a day is beyond the scope of most human beings. My research discussions with Yael have been extremely productive, all thanks to her brilliance. I have had the most pleasant experience collaborating with her and I look forward to spending more time with her in the near future. I thank all of my co-authors for doing all the hard work on our papers: Shweta