PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Craig Gentry

Craig Gentry is a cryptographer whose fully homomorphic encryption lets computers compute on data while it stays encrypted, a capability he applies to privacy-preserving AI. He earned degrees in mathematics at Duke, law at Harvard, and computer science at Stanford, then worked in cryptography at DoCoMo USA Labs and IBM. His FHE scheme won the 2010 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award; he became a 2014 MacArthur Fellow and a 2021 IACR Fellow, and shared the 2022 Gödel Prize. As of October 2026, he is Chief Scientist at Cornami, where he works on encrypted matrix arithmetic for private AI.

Now at
Cornami
Works
192
Citations
40,147
h-index
64
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1995–2009

    Mathematics, law, and cryptography

    He earns a BS in mathematics at Duke in 1995, a JD from Harvard Law School in 1998, and a PhD in computer science at Stanford in 2009. He works as an intellectual property lawyer from 1998 to 2000, then joins DoCoMo USA Labs as a senior research engineer from 2000 to 2005.

  2. 2009

    Fully homomorphic encryption

    In 2009, he publishes a plausible fully homomorphic encryption scheme that lets computers perform arbitrary calculations on data while it stays encrypted and hidden without a secret key.

  3. 2010

    An ACM dissertation award

    In May 2010, the Association for Computing Machinery gives him its Best Dissertation Award for his FHE scheme.

  4. 2013

    Cryptographic software obfuscation

    In 2013, he and his colleagues present the first example of cryptographic software obfuscation, which keeps program functionality intact while making reverse engineering infeasible.

  5. 2014

    A MacArthur Fellowship

    MacArthur names him a Fellow in 2014 for his work in cryptography.

  6. 2021–2022

    An IACR fellowship and Gödel Prize

    The IACR names him a Fellow in 2021 for fully homomorphic encryption research. In 2022, he shares the Gödel Prize with Zvika Brakerski and Vinod Vaikuntanathan for efficient fully homomorphic encryption schemes.

  7. 2025–2026

    Encrypted AI computation

    In 2025, he and Yongwoo Lee publish “Fully Homomorphic Encryption for Matrix Arithmetic,” a scheme that supports encrypted matrix multiplication, addition, and Hadamard multiplication. In November 2025, he describes the work as making privacy-preserving AI practical, with inference for large language models on encrypted data. In August 2026, two papers he coauthors on encrypted matrix arithmetic and FHE bootstrapping are presented at CRYPTO 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Chief Scientist at Cornami

    As of October 2026, he is Chief Scientist at Cornami, with earlier work at IBM Watson and Algorand.

Career

  1. NowCornamiChief Scientist
  2. 2009–2019IBM
  3. 2000–2005NTT DoCoMoSenior research engineer

Education

  1. 2009Stanford UniversityPhD
  2. 1998Harvard UniversityJD
  3. 1995Duke UniversityBS

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

  1. 23% of people shaping AI who left a university for a company later returned to a universityIncludes Craig Gentry. We estimate that 468 of the 2,011 people shaping AI who left a university for a company (23%) later returned to a university after a median of 5 years, and 163 of 829 (20%) made the reverse round trip.
  2. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Craig Gentry. 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. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public rolesIncludes Craig Gentry. Of 216 AI researchers who entered public life, 83 held advisory seats and 58 took public roles. Another 97 people moved from public careers into AI organizations or research, with 62% of dated records starting from 2020 on.
  4. 20% of people at companies who shape AI also hold a university role, led by Google and Stanford UniversityIncludes Stanford University. We estimate that 539 of the 6,766 people with a known current organization (8%) hold both a university role and a company role, including 20% of people at companies and 13% of people at universities.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. Craig Gentry wins dissertation award engineering.stanford.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Craig Gentry - MacArthur Foundation macfound.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Computer Scientist Craig Gentry, 2014 MacArthur Fellow - MacArthur Foundation macfound.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Craig Gentry, 2021 IACR Fellow iacr.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. The 2022 Gödel Prize sigact.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Fully Homomorphic Encryption for Matrix Arithmetic eprint.iacr.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. DESILO and Cornami Announce Breakthrough in Encrypted AI Computation prnewswire.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Cornami | Secure Computation on Encrypted Data cornami.com. Checked 21 October 2026.