Assistant Professor @Cornell_CS. CS theory, cryptography, quantum computing. he/him
United States
Joined June 2019
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Nick Spooner retweeted
Postdoc position at Cambridge. Topics include classical and quantum complexity theory, sublinear algorithms, cryptography, learning theory, and connections to harmonic analysis & additive combinatorics. Apply by 1 December '26.
cstheory-jobs.org/2026/09/29…
Nick Spooner retweeted
PSA: If you put your name on a paper claiming a breakthrough, you damn well better write a paper that other people can read. Otherwise, you will likely not get the kind of attention you seek.
(Advice I've always given to my PhD students. Applies regardless of AI usage.)
Nick Spooner retweeted
It’s hard to feel the joy when I have to think how to advise students to write careful and substantial papers while my esteemed colleagues are too excited to hold themselves to the same standard.
Nick Spooner retweeted
Happy to share new work with Eylon! We construct the first SNARG for NP from sub-exponential LWE, via a PCP + LWE vector commitment where Fiat–Shamir in Micali is securely instantiated with correlation-intractable hashing. eprint.iacr.org/2025/2328 😉
Nick Spooner retweeted
New work with Sarah, Ale and @nachitomanzur 😉 We focus on general generators and study their distance preservation property (mutual correlated agreement), for general linear codes and for Reed-Solomon codes. Check out eprint.iacr.org/2025/2051
Nick Spooner retweeted
🚀 Exciting Update!
We’re thrilled to share that the full list of amazing speakers for UK Crypto Day is now live, and registration is officially open (and free!) 🎉
Register now & check out the lineup:
lnkd.in/dmg7ypeQ
Nick Spooner retweeted
“No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.” - President Alan Garber hrvd.me/GarberRespond347t
Nick Spooner retweeted
The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government. hrvd.me/ResearchFunding25t
Nick Spooner retweeted
The Department of Homeland Security announced today it is formalizing the censorship practices it has engaged in for the past three months. By surveilling visa and green card holders and targeting them based on nothing more than their protected expression, the administration trades America’s commitment to free and open discourse for fear and silence. Unfortunately, that chill appears to be the administration’s aim.
FIRE is seeking a copy of the memo and will have more soon.
Nick Spooner retweeted
@WarwickDCS is looking to hire in quantum computing: warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/jo…! If you're interested in joining one of the strongest TCS groups in the UK, please do consider applying.
Nick Spooner retweeted
Maybe Khalil is not a nice guy. Maybe he’s an antisemite. Maybe he supports Hamas.
But the point of fighting against organizations like Hamas is to protect our freedom as Americans.
If he committed a crime then let him be charged. But a country in which the government can detain and deport a permanent resident and a husband of U.S. citizen for no crime except expressing opinions that the government doesn’t like is not free.
1/ Now that Mahmoud Khalil has been taken into ICE custody, his supporters are spinning a sob story about why you should feel sorry for him. Here’s why you shouldn’t—and why this is exactly what needs to happen to restore order to campuses like @Columbia and our country. 🧵👇
ALT Khalil at podium for Hamilton Hall takeover
Nick Spooner retweeted
UPDATE—Mahmoud's attorney says they do NOT know where he is. They were first told he was sent to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, NJ. But when his 8-month-pregnant wife tried to visit him, she was told he's not there. They've received reports he may be sent as far away as Louisiana.
NEWS: Last night, DHS detained a Palestinian who helped lead Columbia encampment.
Agents told him his visa was revoked. He said he had a green card. They were confused—then said that was revoked too.
His attorney demanded a warrant. Agents hung up instead.zeteo.com/p/breaking-dhs-det…
Nick Spooner retweeted
Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist at Columbia, was arrested last night by ICE agents, who claimed they were acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card, his attorney told the AP.
apnews.com/article/columbia-…
Nick Spooner retweeted
Institutions must learn: there's no appeasing fascists. Columbia humiliated itself, broke the law, brutalized students/faculty, and destroyed the concept of truth. It was targeted not in spite of that, but because of it. If you lack integrity and show weakness, you'll be crushed.
The Trump administration moved Friday to cancel $400 million in grants to and federal contracts with Columbia University, citing antisemitic incidents on campus. cbsn.ws/4bwXDhu
This is insanity, the guy is a *legal permanent resident*. theguardian.com/us-news/2025…
Nick Spooner retweeted
Delighted to share my new paper with Eylon Yogev presenting a new Fiat-Shamir (FS) transformation that aims to be secure against recent white-box attacks: ia.cr/2025/329
The FS transformation is used to convert public-coin interactive protocols to non-interactive ones.
Nick Spooner retweeted
i had a hard time feeling understood by my parents when i was a kid. now, i am realizing how much of it comes down to not understanding my parents too. this is a letter I wrote my dad. i was surprised that he wanted me to share it openly. 1/3
cornellsun.com/2025/02/07/we…
I'm deeply disappointed in my institution for its lack of courage and commitment to its core values, both in its initial action of removing the public statement and the lukewarm non-response to the Sun.
James Grimmelmann @grimmelm puts it much more eloquently than I could, as well as providing a legal perspective: cornellsun.com/2025/02/08/gr…