PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Amit Sahai

Also known as Paneth Amit Sahai

Amit Sahai is a UCLA computer science professor whose research interests include cryptography and large language models. He earned a computer science PhD at MIT in 2000 and joined UCLA in 2004 after serving on Princeton's faculty. With Brent Waters, he published a 2005 paper that introduced attribute-based encryption. In 2013, a team that included Sahai devised a software-obfuscation system that let users run programs while keeping their code hidden. He was elected an ACM Fellow in 2018, received the National Academy of Sciences Michael and Sheila Held Prize in 2022, and became an IEEE Fellow in 2026; as of October 2026, he serves as vice chair for academic advancement and directs UCLA's Center for Encrypted Functionalities.

Works
457
Citations
46,905
h-index
85
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2000

    PhD at MIT

    He earns a PhD in computer science from MIT in 2000.

  2. 2004

    Joining UCLA

    He joins UCLA in 2004 after serving on Princeton's faculty.

  3. 2005

    Fuzzy Identity-Based Encryption

    With Brent Waters, he presents “Fuzzy Identity Based Encryption” at Eurocrypt in 2005. The paper introduces attribute-based encryption, using attribute sets to control access to encrypted data.

  4. 2013

    Obfuscating software

    In 2013, he and a team of researchers design a system that encrypts software while letting people run it and keeping its code hidden.

  5. 2018

    An ACM Fellowship

    ACM elects him a Fellow in 2018 for contributions to cryptography and the development of indistinguishability obfuscation.

  6. 2022

    The Held Prize

    In 2022, he receives the National Academy of Sciences Michael and Sheila Held Prize for his role in developing indistinguishability obfuscation.

  7. 2026

    An IEEE Fellowship

    He is a Fellow of the IEEE in 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and vice chair

    As of October 2026, he is a UCLA computer science professor and serves as vice chair for academic advancement. He directs the Center for Encrypted Functionalities, and his research interests include foundations of cryptography and large language models.

Career

  1. Since 1998University of California, Los AngelesProfessor; vice chair for academic advancement
  2. 2001–2004Princeton UniversityFaculty member

Education

  1. 2000Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPhD

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption2007 · IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy · 5,123 citationsWith Brent Waters
  2. Attribute-based encryption for fine-grained access control of encrypted data2006 · Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security · 5,092 citationsWith Brent Waters
  3. Fuzzy Identity-Based Encryption2005 · Lecture notes in computer science · 4,610 citationsWith Brent Waters
  4. Homomorphic Encryption from Learning with Errors: Conceptually-Simpler, Asymptotically-Faster, Attribute-Based2013 · Lecture notes in computer science · 1,531 citationsWith Brent Waters
  5. Fully Secure Functional Encryption: Attribute-Based Encryption and (Hierarchical) Inner Product Encryption2010 · Lecture notes in computer science · 1,323 citationsWith Brent Waters

From OpenAlex, as of 18 October 2026.

  1. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Stanford University trained or employed 27 of the 111 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 3% to 32%Includes University of California, Los Angeles. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 3% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of California, Los Angeles. Our estimates of combined and median h-index at AI organizations, using current affiliations and OpenAlex records.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Amit Sahai yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Amit Sahai | UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering samueli.ucla.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  2. Publications cs.utexas.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  3. What Is Attribute-Based Encryption? – NTT Research, Inc. ntt-research.com. Checked 18 October 2026.
  4. Computer scientists develop 'mathematical jigsaw puzzles' to encrypt software newsroom.ucla.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  5. 3 computer science professors honored by Association for Computing Machinery newsroom.ucla.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  6. Amit Sahai web.cs.ucla.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.
  7. Computer Science seasoasa.ucla.edu. Checked 18 October 2026.