My name is Zach. My pronouns are he/him/his. I’m currently a researcher at MongoDB in the Cryptography Research Group.
My research goal is to advance the state-of-the-art in privacy-preserving, efficient systems for multi-party computation, data processing, and retrieval. To do this, I combine a broad set of interests in cryptography, data structures, formal methods and optimization, and algorithms. I also like to study cryptanalysis attacks that are motivated by practical, real-world systems but grounded in theoretically interesting formalisms. As a corollary to all of these goals, I also like to ask questions about the practicality and usability of cryptography research itself—specifically, how we can build practical tooling and infrastructure to enable researchers to perform research (both in theory and in practice).
I completed a concurrent Sc.B. and Sc.M. at Brown University with a focus in security, systems, and theory. My studies were generously supported by grants from Brown CS, CrowdStrike, (ISC)2, and the CIT Group. I was also affiliated with the following research groups:
I am passionate about teaching computer security. While at Brown, I spent a lot of time thinking about creatively designing effective mechanisms for developing security mindsets. I was the course designer and Head Teaching Assistant of the Computer Science department’s flagship computer systems security course from 2019 to 2021.
Previously, I worked as a security engineer at D. E. Shaw. & Co. and interned at Google and Order.
I spend a lot of time long distance running and thinking about things like: theatrical lighting design, immersive theater, tabletop gaming, public transit, speech and debate, and Dance Dance Revolution.
