Seny Kamara

I am a Distinguished Scientist and Head of Research at MongoDB. I also hold a Visiting Professor appointment in the Department of Computer Science at Brown University. Before its acquisition by MongoDB, I was co-founder and Chief Scientist at Aroki Systems and an Associate Professor at Brown. Prior to that, I was a Research Scientist at Microsoft Research.

My research is in cryptography and is driven by real-world problems from privacy, security and surveillance. I have worked extensively on the design and cryptanalysis of encrypted search algorithms, which are efficient algorithms to search on end-to-end encrypted data. I maintain interests in various aspects of theory and systems, including applied and theoretical cryptography, data structures and algorithms, databases, networking, game theory and technology policy.

At Brown, I taught Algorithms for the People, co-founded the Center for Technological Responsibility, Reimagination and Redesign (CNTR) with Suresh Venkatasubramanian, co-founded and co-directed the Encrypted Systems Lab with Tarik Moataz, co-founded the Socially Responsible Computing program with Ugur Cetintemel, Kathi Fisler, Lachlan Kermode and Julia Netter, and chaired the Diversity Committee and Mosaic+ Transition Program with Laura Dobler. I was also affiliated with the CAPS group, the Data Science Initiative, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and the Policy Lab.

Together with Alishah Chator, Leah Rosenbloom and Lucy Qin, we founded the Community-Driven Cryptography project and the Re-Imagining Cryptography and Privacy (ReCAP) Workshop.

Note: Unfortunately, I am not able to take on new PhD students.