Slim Amamou

Announcing the preliminary program for Cedarcrypt — our inaugural applied cryptography summer school and conference, July 13–16, 2026 at the American University of Beirut - Mediterraneo in Paphos, Cyprus! We've put together a program we're genuinely proud of — a pedagogical progression from accessible foundations to state-of-the-art constructions, featuring lectures, hands-on workshops, and research talks from leading voices across academia and industry. The program spans everything from accessible foundations to cutting-edge research: Bart Preneel (KU Leuven) opens with a keynote, followed by deep dives into FHE with Emad Heydari Beni (Nokia Bell Labs), state-of-the-art hash-based SNARKs with Giacomo Fenzi (EPFL), and Zero-Knowledge Proofs with Tarek Galal (TU Berlin). Practitioners will hear from Zeke Hunter-Green how The Guardian built their anonymous whistleblowing system (CoverDrop + MLS), and a host of other guest speakers who will help attendees learn post-quantum migration strategies across lattices, isogenies, and codes, and get hands-on with threshold signing, MPC engineering, and constant-time programming — all in four days on the Mediterranean coast. Organized in collaboration with the IACR, and hosted on Cyprus's Mediterranean coast — a UNESCO World Heritage city where you can step from a workshop on threshold signing straight to a seaside taverna. Thanks to our generous sponsors — Electi, PQShield, Symbolic Software, Zama, and several anonymous donors — we're offering FULL SCHOLARSHIPS (travel + lodging) to students and early-career researchers, awarded on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted. Graduate students, early-career researchers, and practitioners in applied cryptography: we built this for you! Join us this July in sunny Paphos! Let's make this an inaugural event to remember!