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Background

Elliott I. Organick served fifteen years at the University of Utah, tirelessly helping shape the Department’s academic and research programs. In addition, he brought recognition and honor to the Department through his prolific writing, his unstinting professional service, and the warmth of his humanity.

Upon his passing in 1985 many of his friends, colleagues and former students established a permanent memorial, the Elliott I. Organick Endowment. This endowment enhances the Computer Science environment in Utah through a pair of lectures which are the highlight public events of each academic year.

2025 Lecture - Vinod Vaikuntanathan, MIT EECS and CSAIL

October 27, 2025

The Robert H. and Katharine B. Garff Building Auditorium; University of Utah

1731 East Campus Center Drive, SLC, Utah 84112

5:45 PM: Refreshments
6:00 PM: Lecture

Title: In Math We Trust: A Glimpse into Modern Cryptography

Synopsis: Can you communicate securely with someone you've never met? Can you prove your identity without revealing any personal information? Can you run a medical study without seeing patient data? Modern cryptography gives us ways to make sense of these seemingly paradoxical questions, and it develops solutions to these questions using a rich mathematical toolkit. We will start with the basics of cryptography and go on a gentle guided tour of its latest “magic tricks”: zero-knowledge proofs that reveal nothing; secure computation that lets rivals collaborate; and homomorphic encryption that computes on scrambled data. We will end with some of the big challenges ahead— including trust in the age of AI, and security in the age of quantum computing.

 

Transit and Parking Information:

LECTURE IN GARFF AUDITORIUM
The Robert H. and Katharine B. Garff Building
1731 East Campus Center Drive, SLC, Utah 84112

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Ride UTA Trip Planner

PARKING IN THE CENTRAL CAMPUS GARAGE: Please park in any unmarked stall on the second level (P2). Tickets will be given if you park anywhere but (P2).

 

Click the linked image below for a map or click here for Google Maps location.

Past Lectures

(35) 2024 – Alexis “Alyosha” Efros, UC Berkeley (VIDEO)

(34) 2023 – Elizabeth Churchill, Senior Director of UX at Google

(33) 2021 – Telle Whitney, Co-founder Grace Hopper Celebration

(32) 2019 – Pat Hanrahan, Stanford University

(31) 2018 – Maurice Herlihy, Brown University

(30) 2017 – Kathy Yelick, UC Berkeley

(29) 2016 – Moshe Vardi, Rice University

(28) 2015 – Farnam Jahanian, Carnegie Mellon University

(27) 2014 – Ed Lazowska, University of Washington

(26) 2013 – Peter Neumann, SRI International

(25) 2012 – David E. Shaw, D.E. Shaw Research

(24) 2010 – Sebastian Thrun, Stanford University

(23) 2009 – Ed Catmull, Ph.D., President Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios

(22) 2008 – Fran Allen, IBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory

(21) 2007 – Jeannette Wing, Carnegie Mellon University

(20) 2006 – Alan Kay, Viewpoints Research Institute, Inc.

(19) 2005 – Vinton Cerf, Technology Strategy, MCI Inc.

(18) 2004 – Jim Gray, Microsoft Research

(17) 2003 – David Patterson, UC Berkeley

(16) 2002 – David Gelernter, Yale University

(15) 2001 – Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

(14) 2000 – Takeo Kanade, Carnegie Mellon University

(13) 1999 – Guy L. Steele, Jr., Sun Microsystems, Inc.

(12) 1998 – Richard M. Karp, University of Washington

(11) 1997 – Raj Reddy, Carnegie Mellon University

(10) 1996 – John Hennessy, Stanford University

(9) 1995 – Robert E. Kahn, Corporation for National Research Initiatives

(8) 1994 – Butler W. Lampson, Digital Equipment Corporation

(7) 1993 – Ivan Sutherland, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

(6) 1992 – Dana S. Scott, Carnegie Mellon University

(5) 1991 – Carver A. Mead, California Institute of Technology

(4) 1990 – Donald E. Knuth, Stanford University

(3) 1989 – C.A.R. Hoare, Oxford University

(2) 1988 – John E. Hopcroft, Cornell University

(1) 1987 – Kristen Nygaard, University of Oslo, Norway

For more information on the series please contact ellen.marie.lewis@utah.edu