Fermi Ma

I am a Simons-Berkeley Postdoctoral Fellow hosted by Prof. Umesh Vazirani. I earned my Ph.D. at Princeton in 2021, where I was advised by Prof. Mark Zhandry. Before that, I received my B.S. in mathematics from MIT.

My research focuses on the interplay between cryptography and quantum information/computation.

Spring 2023: I’m co-teaching CS:294-236. Cryptography in a Quantum World with Umesh Vazirani.

CV (as of December 2022)
[email protected]

Papers

Authors on all papers are in alphabetical order.

  1. Commitments to Quantum States [pdf] [slides]
    Sam Gunn, Nathan Ju, Fermi Ma, and Mark Zhandry
    STOC 2023, QIP 2023

  2. Post-Quantum Zero Knowledge, Revisited (or: How to Do Quantum Rewinding Undetectably) [pdf] [slides]
    Alex Lombardi, Fermi Ma, and Nicholas Spooner
    FOCS 2022, QIP 2023

  3. Succinct Classical Verification of Quantum Computation [pdf]
    James Bartusek, Yael Kalai, Alex Lombardi, Fermi Ma, Giulio Malavolta, Vinod Vaikuntanathan, Thomas Vidick, and Lisa Yang
    CRYPTO 2022

  4. Post-Quantum Succinct Arguments: Breaking the Quantum Rewinding Barrier [pdf] [slides]
    Alessandro Chiesa, Fermi Ma, Nicholas Spooner, and Mark Zhandry
    FOCS 2021 (Invited to the SICOMP Special Issue for FOCS 2021), QIP 2022, QCRYPT 2021

  5. One-Way Functions Imply Secure Computation in a Quantum World [pdf]
    James Bartusek, Andrea Coladangelo, Dakshita Khurana, and Fermi Ma
    CRYPTO 2021, QIP 2021 (Long plenary talk), QCRYPT 2021 (Invited talk)

  6. On the Round Complexity of Secure Quantum Computation [pdf]
    James Bartusek, Andrea Coladangelo, Dakshita Khurana, and Fermi Ma
    CRYPTO 2021, QIP 2021, QCRYPT 2021

  7. Does Fiat-Shamir Require a Cryptographic Hash Function? [pdf] [slides]
    Yilei Chen, Alex Lombardi, Fermi Ma, and Willy Quach
    CRYPTO 2021

  8. Leakage-Resilient Key Exchange and Two-Seed Extractors [pdf]
    Xin Li, Fermi Ma, Willy Quach, and Daniel Wichs
    CRYPTO 2020

  9. Affine Determinant Programs: A Framework for Obfuscation and Witness Encryption [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Yuval Ishai, Aayush Jain, Fermi Ma, Amit Sahai, and Mark Zhandry
    ITCS 2020

  10. On the (In)security of Kilian-Based SNARGs [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Liron Bronfman, Justin Holmgren, Fermi Ma, and Ron D. Rothblum
    TCC 2019

  11. Public-Key Function Private Hidden Vector Encryption and More [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Brent Carmer, Abhishek Jain, Zhengzhong Jin, Tancrède Lepoint, Fermi Ma, Tal Malkin, Alex J. Malozemoff, and Mariana Raykova
    ASIACRYPT 2019

  12. The Distinction Between Fixed and Random Generators in Group-Based Assumptions [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Fermi Ma, and Mark Zhandry
    CRYPTO 2019

  13. New Techniques for Obfuscating Conjunctions [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Tancrède Lepoint, Fermi Ma, and Mark Zhandry
    EUROCRYPT 2019

  14. Return of GGH15: Provable Security Against Zeroizing Attacks [pdf] [slides]
    James Bartusek, Jiaxin Guan, Fermi Ma, and Mark Zhandry
    TCC 2018

  15. The MMAP Strikes Back: Obfuscation and New Multilinear Maps Immune to CLT13 Zeroizing Attacks [pdf] [slides]
    Fermi Ma and Mark Zhandry
    TCC 2018

  16. Encryptor Combiners: A Unified Approach to Multiparty NIKE, (H)IBE, and Broadcast Encryption [pdf] [slides]
    Fermi Ma and Mark Zhandry

Talks

  1. Commitments to Quantum States [slides]
    Charles River Crypto Day (December 2022)

  2. Post-Quantum Zero Knowledge, Revisited (or: How to Do Quantum Rewinding Undetectably) [slides]
    FOCS 2022 (November 2022)

  3. Post-Quantum Proof Techniques
    IPAM Graduate Summer School on Post-quantum and Quantum Cryptography (July 2022)
    Part 1: Introduction to Quantum Rewinding [slides] [video]
    Part 2: How to Rewind a Quantum Attacker Many Times [slides] [video]

  4. Quantum Rewinding Tutorial
    presented with Alex Lombardi at the Simons Institute’s Quantum and Lattices Joint Reunion Workshop (June 2022)
    Part 1: Motivation and Early Rewinding Techniques (by Alex and Fermi) [slides] [video]
    Part 2: How to Rewind a Quantum Attacker Many Times (by Fermi) [slides] [video]
    Part 3: Zero Knowledge Simulation Beyond Watrous (by Alex) [slides] [video]

  5. Post-Quantum Succinct Arguments: Breaking the Quantum Rewinding Barrier [slides]
    QIP 2022 (March 2022)
    Simons Quantum Colloquium (Oct 2021) [video] [panel discussion]
    QCRYPT 2021 (August 2021)
    MIT Cryptography and Information Security Seminar (May 2021)
    Weizmann + Tel Aviv University Seminar (April 2021)
    Cornell Crypto Seminar (April 2021)
    NTT Research (April 2021)

  6. Quantum Security and Fiat-Shamir for Cryptographic Protocols [slides]
    PhD Defense Talk (August 2021)

  7. Does Fiat-Shamir Require a Cryptographic Hash Function? [slides]
    CRYPTO 2021 (August 2021)
    UIUC (November 2020)
    NTT Research (August 2020)

  8. On the (In)security of Kilian-Based SNARGs [slides]
    Tokyo Crypto Day (December 2019)
    Charles River Crypto Day (November 2019)

  9. Public-Key Function-Private Hidden Vector Encryption (and More) [slides]
    ASIACRYPT 2019 (December 2019)

  10. The Distinction Between Fixed and Random Generators in Group-Based Assumptions [slides]
    CRYPTO 2019 (August 2019)

  11. Affine Determinant Programs: A New Approach to Obfuscation [slides]
    New Roads to Cryptopia, a CRYPTO 2019 affiliated event (August 2019)

  12. New Techniques for Obfuscating Conjunctions [slides]
    EUROCRYPT 2019 (May 2019)
    New York Crypto Day (May 2019)
    UC Berkeley Cryptography Seminar (February 2019)
    Weizmann Cryptography Seminar (February 2019)
    Technion Theory Lunch (January 2019)
    IDC Herzliya (January 2019)
    SRI International (August 2018)

  13. A Weak Model for the CLT13 Multilinear Maps [slides]
    TCC 2018 (November 2018)
    UCLA Cryptography Seminar (April 2018)

  14. Encryptor Combiners [slides]
    Princeton General Exam Talk (May 2017)

Service

I have served on (or will serve on) the following program committees: