International Association for Cryptologic Research

International Association
for Cryptologic Research

IACR News item: 10 September 2014

Announcement Announcement

Here is a brief update on IACR matters as of CRYPTO 2014.

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***Communications and website

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First of all, I would like to thank Christopher Wolf for his service\r\nand dedication to the IACR in his role as Newsletter Editor (later,\r\nCommunications Secretary). From 2009 until this summer, he has led\r\nthe communications and publicity activities of the IACR and made the\r\nwebsite an interesting and interactive experience.

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The Board of Directors has appointed Mike Rosulek (Oregon State\r\nUniversity, US) as the Communications Secretary; Yu Yu (Shanghai Jiao\r\nTong University, CN) also joins the communications team and serves as\r\none of the webmasters.

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***Cryptography Research Fund for Students

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Thanks to the generous donation of 1 Mio. USD from Cryptography\r\nResearch Inc. (a division of Rambus) the IACR has created the\r\n*Cryptography Research Fund for Students.*

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The fund aims at promoting cryptology to students and supporting\r\nscholarly work in the field. With its help, the IACR can greatly\r\nincrease its support for students in cryptology through:

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1) Waiving the registration fee for student speakers at EUROCRYPT,\r\n CRYPTO, ASIACRYPT and, now, also at CHES, FSE, TCC and PKC;

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2) Expanding its support for Cryptology Schools (see below);

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3) Further activities, as coordinated by an Endowment Committee that\r\n oversees the fund. (Please contact its chair, Greg Rose, with more\r\n ideas.)

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The IACR has created an investment fund with a conservative strategy\r\nso that this program can be funded in perpetuity. Combined with a\r\nsmaller commitment from the IACR, the sum in the fund can support the\r\nongoing activities detailed above as well as let the capital keep\r\nup with inflation.

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***Parallel sessions

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In response to the growth of the field over the last years, the Board\r\nin 2011 sent a message to Program Chairs and Program Committees of the\r\nthree main conferences asking them \"to accept substantially more\r\npapers than used to be the case and to work with their General Chair\r\nfor the logistics to make this possible.\" As one can see from the\r\npublication statistics over the recent years\r\n(http://www.iacr.org/publications/statistics.html) the message has\r\nbeen received partially, but not uniformly implemented. As of today,\r\nthe Board believes that this effort should go further. During the\r\nrecent meeting at CRYPTO, a majority of the Board expressed the opinion\r\nthat a program of, say, 60 or more talks should be arranged at least\r\npartially in parallel sessions.

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Hence, during its meeting at CRYPTO, the Board has decided to ask the\r\nProgram Chairs and Committees of the three IACR conferences in 2015\r\n\"to have parallel sessions for a significant part of the program.\" It\r\nis intended for 2015 only. At a discussion during the membership\r\nmeeting, a vote indicated a clear majority in favor of this change for\r\n2015, but there was also a significant minority against. After\r\nASIACRYPT 2015 a referendum among the IACR membership will be held for\r\ndeciding whether the format should be kept like this.

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Per IACR\'s policy, Program Chairs and Committees are responsible for\r\nthe scientific program; the General Chairs are responsible for the\r\nlogistics and the organization. The Board guides these processes and\r\nensures continuity across IACR\'s activities.

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***Cryptology Schools

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The Board has approved funding for the first three IACR Cryptology\r\nSchools, which take place later this year and next year.

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1) School on Cryptographic Attacks (http://attackschool.di.uminho.pt/)\r\n 13-17 October 2014, Porto, Portugal

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2) School on Design and Security of Cryptographic Algorithms and Devices,\r\n 5-10 July 2015 (tentative), location to be decided.

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3) Asian Workshop on Symmetric Key Cryptography - Cryptology School,\r\n 19-22 December 2014, Chennai, India (http://ask2014.iiitd.ac.in/)

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See the website http://www.iacr.org/schools/ for more information.

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***Elections

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There will be elections for three IACR Director positions later this\r\nyear; nominations are now open and due by October 10, 2014. Please\r\nconsider running and see the announcement on the website:\r\n http://www.iacr.org/elections/2014/

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Regards,


\r\n\r\n Christian Cachin\r\n IACR President\r\n
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