The Wonderful CL Signature: Meet Jan and Anna

What I love about research, and especially cryptography, is that it is about people, and not large faceless companies with billions of dollars to spend on research. With this, a single person can do more than all of the research conducted in the labs of a big company. These are generally people with creativity, passion and a drive to address fundamental issues.

Research, at its worst, is a paper mill of dull and uninspiring work, and where many go through the motions of publishing for the sake of it. But, at its best, it involves researchers coming up with breakthroughs that no one could ever conceive of and which fundamentally advances and changes our world. It’s about people like Hellman, Diffie, Rivest, Shamir, ElGamal, Merkle, and Adleman, and so many other giants whose shoulders we build the security and trust of the Internet.

And, so, when two of your favouriate cryptography researchers get a prize, it’s always a great feeling[here]:

and here they are: