PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ari Juels

Ari Juels is a computer scientist whose security research links machine-learning systems, blockchains and AI agents. He studied Latin literature and mathematics at Amherst, earned a computer science Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 1996, and joined RSA in 1996. His RSA work covered denial-of-service protection, password recovery, RFID privacy and cloud storage; at Cornell, he became a professor by 2014 and helped establish IC3 in 2015. He published The Oracle in 2024 and coauthored a 2025 paper on AI-agent risks involving cryptocurrency; his 2016 model-extraction paper received the 2026 USENIX Security Test of Time Award. As of October 2026, he is the Weill professor at Cornell Tech and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, co-director of IC3 and chief scientist at Chainlink Labs.

Now at
Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute and Chainlink Labs
Works
226
Citations
29,826
h-index
78
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1991–1996

    Amherst and Berkeley degrees

    At Amherst College, he studies Latin literature and mathematics and earns a B.A. in 1991. He completes a Ph.D. in computer science at UC Berkeley in 1996.

  2. 1996–2013

    RSA research and leadership

    He joins RSA in 1996 and works on denial-of-service defenses, password recovery, RFID privacy and cloud storage. By 2007, he is chief scientist and director of RSA Laboratories and develops a proof of retrievability that lets a server prove it holds a complete, intact copy of a user's files. He serves as a distinguished engineer at EMC until 2013.

  3. 2014

    Professor at Cornell Tech

    By 2014, he is a professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech.

  4. 2015

    Building IC3 at Cornell

    With colleagues from Cornell's Ithaca campus, he establishes the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute in 2015.

  5. 2024

    The Oracle and large language models

    He publishes The Oracle in 2024, a crypto-thriller based on research from his Cornell Tech group. Its plot combines blockchain smart contracts with large language models that interpret news to adjudicate payments.

  6. 2025

    AI agents and smart contracts

    He coauthors “Giving AI Agents Access to Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts Creates New Vectors of AI Harm” with Bill Marino in 2025. Their position paper describes three categories of harm that could arise when AI agents use cryptocurrencies and smart contracts, and calls for technical research to mitigate them.

  7. 2026

    A USENIX Security award

    In 2016, he coauthors “Stealing Machine Learning Models via Prediction APIs,” showing efficient attacks that extract models with near-perfect fidelity. In 2026, USENIX Security gives the paper its Test of Time Award.

  8. As of October 2026

    Cornell professor and Chainlink scientist

    He is the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor of computer science at Cornell Tech, the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, and the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. He co-directs IC3 and is chief scientist at Chainlink Labs. His research spans blockchains, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, applied cryptography, user authentication and privacy.

Career

  1. Since 2015Jacobs Technion-Cornell InstituteProfessor, Founder
  2. Since 2014Cornell UniversityProfessor
  3. NowChainlink LabsChief Scientist
  4. Until 2013EMC CorporationDistinguished Engineer
  5. 1996–2013RSA SecuritySecurity researcher

Education

  1. 1996University of California, BerkeleyPh.D. in computer science
  2. 1991Amherst CollegeB.A.

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

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Cornell University. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Cornell University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  3. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Cornell University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Cornell University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Dr. Ari Juels Headlines Google Seminar Series | B.S. in Mechatronics Engineering mechatronics.umd.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Profile: Ari Juels – Computerworld computerworld.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Cornell Tech - Ari Juels tech.cornell.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Cornell Tech - Ari Juels on user authentication: passwords are flawed, but what are the alternatives? tech.cornell.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Cornell Tech - Ari Juels — A Philosophy of Numbers tech.cornell.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Cornell Tech - Ari Juels Publishes New Crypto-Thriller Novel tech.cornell.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. [2507.08249] Giving AI Agents Access to Cryptocurrency and Smart Contracts Creates New Vectors of AI Harm arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. [1609.02943] Stealing Machine Learning Models via Prediction APIs arxiv.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Professor Ari Juels Receives USENIX Security Test of Time Award tech.cornell.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.