Rate My Professor Rainer Steinwandt

Rainer Steinwandt earned his Dipl.-Inform., equivalent to an M.S. in Computer Science, in 1998 and his Dr. rer. nat., equivalent to a Ph.D. in Computer Science, in 2000 from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with research focused on topics in computer algebra. In 2005, he joined Florida Atlantic University as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He advanced to full Professor, served as Chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences, and directed the Center for Cryptology and Information Security. During his tenure at FAU, Steinwandt contributed significantly to interdisciplinary efforts in computer science and mathematics, particularly in cryptographic applications.

Steinwandt's research centers on cryptology and its interplay with quantum computing, encompassing post-quantum cryptography, secure key establishment protocols, side-channel attack countermeasures, and quantum resource estimates for symmetric ciphers. Key publications include "Applying Grover’s algorithm to AES: quantum resource estimates" (Grassl, Langenberg, Roetteler; 2016; International Workshop on Post-Quantum Cryptography), "Reducing the cost of implementing the advanced encryption standard as a quantum circuit" (Langenberg, Pham; 2020; IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering), "A practical attack on some braid group based cryptographic primitives" (Hofheinz; 2002; International Workshop on Public Key Cryptography), "Secure group key establishment revisited" (Bohli, González Vasco; 2007; International Journal of Information Security), and "Differential power analysis of a McEliece cryptosystem" (Chen, Eisenbarth, von Maurich; 2015; International Conference on Applied Cryptography and Network Security). He received the 2018 NATO Science for Peace and Security Partnership Prize for leading a multi-year project on the secure implementation of post-quantum cryptography, collaborating with the Slovak University of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and Jean Monnet University. Additional honors include two Research Mentoring Awards at Florida Atlantic University and excellence in teaching awards for courses on public key cryptography and cryptography and data security at the University of Karlsruhe. Steinwandt served on the Steering Committee of the International Conference on Post-Quantum Cryptography, as General Chair of PQCrypto 2018, Program Co-Chair of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization conference, and co-chair of the 2015 Korea-US Joint Workshop on Quantum Information. His contributions support NIST's post-quantum cryptography standardization efforts.