Institutes: New York University, (Previously) Stanford University

Email: wdn2016 {at} nyu [dot] edu

About Me

I am an Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow in the Computer Science department of the Courant Institute at New York University. While at NYU, I am graciously hosted by Benedikt Bünz. My research is on proof systems (more generally, interactive reductions). In particular, I am concerned about their practical efficiency (time, memory, communication complexity) and their post-quantum security (can we build practical systems from a variety of plausibly post-quantum assumptions?).

Previously, I was a CS Ph.D. student (advised by Dan Boneh) and a member of the Applied Cryptography Group. During my Ph.D., I interned at Microsoft Research in Redmond and worked with Srinath Setty. As an undergrad, I was a member of the Stanford Empirical Research Group advised by Zakir Durumeric. I also briefly worked with Marco Patrignani on secure compilation.

Here is my CV-2025 (Outdated).

Teaching & Mentorship

NYU CSCI-UA.0310: Basic Algorithms Recitation Instructor (2025)

Stanford CS355: Topics in Cryptography Instructor (2022, 2023, 2024)

Stanford IPS/INTLPOL268: Hacklab (TA 2018, Head TA 2019)

I’ve had the privilege of working with the following amazing students.

  • Zijing “Christie” Di (Stanford MS -> EPFL Ph.D.)
  • Lucas Xia (Stanford MS -> Aztec -> NYU Ph.D.)
  • Bharath Namboothiry (Stanford BS -> UPenn Ph.D.)
  • Ihyun Nam (Stanford BS -> Stanford Ph.D.)
  • Uma Dayal (Stanford BS -> Succinct -> Brown Ph.D.)
  • Anthony Argyropoulos (Stanford BS -> Stanford MS)
  • Madeleine Charity (Stanford BS -> Privy)

Mentions in Media