Ran Cohen
(he/him/his)
Visiting Scientist

Research interests
- Cryptography
Education
- PhD in Computer Science, Bar-Ilan University – Israel
- MS in Mathematics, Bar-Ilan University – Israel
- BS in Computer Science, Bar-Ilan University – Israel
Biography
Ran Cohen is a post-doctoral researcher at Northeastern University, Boston University, and MIT, working with Abhi Shelat, Ran Canetti, and Shafi Goldwasser. He is interested in all aspects of cryptography, especially in Secure Multiparty Computation (MPC), where a set of distrusting parties jointly compute a function while guaranteeing the privacy of the inputs and correctness of the output.
Before joining Northeastern, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Tel Aviv University. In 2016, Cohen received his doctorate in computer science from Bar-Ilan University, where he was advised by Professor Yehuda Lindell. During his doctoral studies, he conducted research in cryptography and analyzed various security properties of MPC protocols in terms of both feasibility and efficiency. Cohen also holds a master's in mathematics, with a specialization in algebraic geometry.
Cohen is interested in understanding the minimal and necessary requirements for executing secure protocols. One aspect of this question is analyzing the basic properties of the communication graphs induced by secure protocols and then check, for example, whether such graphs must be expanders. He finds modern cryptography fascinating due to its ability to provide unique solutions to seemingly unsolvable day-to-day problems. In the future, Cohen hopes to combine his interest in conducting research and solving problems with his passion for teaching and working with students in an academic career.