Liyan Chen

About Me

IEmail: cliyan at mit dot edu am a first-year PhD student at MIT, where I am fortunate to be advised by Yael Tauman Kalai and Vinod Vaikuntanathan. Before that, I completed a B.S. in Yao Class, Tsinghua University.

I am broadly interested in cryptography and theoretical computer science. I am currently excited about proof systems and applying cryptography to other scientific fields such as AI safety.

Publications

• On the Impossibility of SNARGs with Short CRS
  (or: Revisiting Gentry-Wichs Barrier in the Non-adaptive Setting)
  with Zhengzhong Jin
  FOCS 2025
• Succinct Non-interactive Arguments of Proximity
  with Zhengzhong Jin and Daniel Wichs
  STOC 2025
• Unambiguous SNARGs for P from LWE with Applications to PPAD Hardness
  with Cody Freitag, Zhengzhong Jin and Daniel Wichs
  STOC 2025
• Setting targets is all you need: Improved order competitive ratio for online selection
  with Nuozhou Sun and Zhihao Gavin Tang
  EC 2024

CV