The Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum has awarded an honorary doctorate to US American IT security researcher Prof. Dr. Tal Rabin. This is the first honorary doctorate awarded by the young faculty. The certificate was handed over on June 27, 2023 by Dean Laurenz Wiskott during the "Women in Security and Cryptography Workshop" of the Cluster of Excellence CASA at the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum.
Laudators Honor Professional and Personal Commitment
With the award, the faculty honors both Tal Rabin's outstanding scientific achievements in the field of cryptography and her decades-long commitment to promoting young female scientists. In their joint laudation, Laurenz Wiskott and Christof Paar also highlighted her significant participation in the application process for the Cluster of Excellence "CASA - Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries", where she still participates today as a valuable member of the CASA Advisory Board. Under the title "Tal is amazing: obviously." Tal Malkin, Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, took a personal and humorous look at the work and commitment of Tal Rabin, with whom she shares a long-lasting friendship. Tal Malkin emphasized how much Tal Rabin, through years of commitment and support, has decisively shaped not only her own life, but also that of countless other people in the scientific community - as "researcher, mentor, friend, mother, daughter, colleague, boss, role model." In the lecture that followed, Tal Rabin expressed her gratitude for the award, which she "would never have dreamed of" and described the Cluster of Excellence CASA as "a world-class place like no other, thanks to those who contribute to it."
Excellent Research of Tal Rabin
In the field of cryptography, Tal Rabin's focus is on secure multi-party computation, threshold cryptosystems, and proactive security, as well as adaptations of these technologies to blockchain environments. In addition to her current position as a professor of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, she serves as an advisor to the Algorand Foundation, where she was previously Head of Research. To date, she has published over 100 scientific papers in her career, working hand-in-hand with other excellent scientists.
Tal Rabin has already received numerous awards and honors. These include the Anita Borg Institute's “Woman of Vision for Innovation” award, the “RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics”, and the “STOC Test of Time Award” presented by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery). She was also honored as the #4 of the 22 most influential female engineers in the world by Business Insider in 2014 and one of the "Top 50 Women in Tech" by Forbes Magazine in 2018. Furthermore, she has chaired several leading conferences on cryptography and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cryptology. Tal Rabin was also part of the SIGACT Executive Board and a council member of the Computing Community Consortium.
Paving the Way for Young Female Researcher
In addition to her scientific work and expertise, Tal Rabin stands out for her decades-long commitment to promoting girls and women in technology and research. Among other things, she is one of the organizers of the world-renowned WIT - Women in Theory conference, which brings together women in the field of theoretical computer science from all parts of the world and - in addition to a selected educational program - provides a platform for networking and exchange between young female scientists. At the first “Women in Security and Cryptography Workshop (WISC)” of the Cluster of Excellence CASA, she was one of the keynote speakers.
General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.