PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ian Miers

Ian Miers is a cryptographer and assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland whose work reaches AI through watermarking for large language models. Working with Matthew Green at Johns Hopkins University, he co-proposed the Zerocoin protocol in 2013, coauthored Zerocash in 2014, and earned his doctorate in 2017. He coauthored the Zexe system for decentralized private computation in 2018 and, while a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell Tech in 2019, was named to a tenure-track faculty post at Maryland. In 2023, he coauthored "A Watermark for Large Language Models" with John Kirchenbauer, Jonas Geiping, Yuxin Wen, Jonathan Katz, and Tom Goldstein, winning an ICML Outstanding Paper Award, and in 2024 he shared the IEEE Security and Privacy Test of Time Award for Zerocash. At Maryland, where he holds a joint appointment in UMIACS and a core role in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center, he studies private payments, smart contracts, and watermarks that detect LLM-generated content.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2013

    The Zerocoin protocol

    In 2013, he and fellow graduate student Christina Garman join Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew D. Green in proposing Zerocoin, a privacy protocol that anonymizes cryptocurrency transactions without a trusted third party.

  2. 2014

    Zerocash and Zcash

    In 2014, he coauthors Zerocash, a decentralized anonymous payment scheme that hides a transaction's origin, destination, and amount so people can pay each other privately when the blockchain is public. The Zcash project grows out of the 2013 Zerocoin work with Matthew Green and Christina Garman, and Miers is one of the founding scientists of Zcash and of Aleo.

  3. 2017

    A Johns Hopkins doctorate

    He earns a doctorate in computer science from Johns Hopkins University in 2017. As a PhD student advised by Matthew Green, he works on applied cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies, including anonymous cryptocurrencies, decentralized anonymous credentials, and secure messaging.

  4. 2018

    The Zexe private computation system

    In 2018, he coauthors Zexe, a ledger-based system for decentralized private computation where users execute offline computations and produce transactions attesting to their correctness. The Zexe system inspires the formation of Aleo.

  5. 2019

    A faculty post at Maryland

    In June 2019, while a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell Tech, he is announced as one of five new faculty joining the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He is scheduled to start in 2020 as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science.

  6. 2023

    A watermark for language models

    In 2023, he coauthors "A Watermark for Large Language Models" with John Kirchenbauer, Jonas Geiping, Yuxin Wen, Jonathan Katz, and Tom Goldstein. The paper proposes a watermarking framework for proprietary language models that an open-source algorithm can detect without access to the model's API or parameters. It receives an Outstanding Paper Award at ICML 2023, one of six chosen from 1,865 accepted papers.

  7. 2024

    IEEE Test of Time Award

    In May 2024, at the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco, he shares the IEEE Security and Privacy Test of Time Award for the 2014 Zerocash paper with co-authors Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Christina Garman, Matthew Green, Eran Tromer, and Madars Virza.

  8. As of October 2026

    Assistant professor at Maryland

    He is an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, with a joint appointment in UMIACS and a core role in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center. His research covers private payments and smart contracts, privacy-preserving identity and moderation systems, and watermarks that detect LLM-generated content. Carnegie Mellon's CyLab schedules him for a seminar talk in April 2026.

Career

  1. Since 2020University of MarylandAssistant Professor
  2. From 2014ZcashFounding Scientist
  3. From 2014AleoFounding Scientist
  4. Cornell UniversityPostdoctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2017Johns Hopkins UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Ian Miers. 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. People shaping AI work at a median of 3 organizations over a career: 3 for university starters and institute and lab starters, versus 2 for company startersIncludes University of Maryland. Across 6,853 people shaping AI with a dated work role, we estimate a median of 3 parent organizations over a career (mean 3.6), comparing role groups, starting sectors and starting decades from the 1950s to 2020–2026.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Maryland. 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.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Maryland. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.

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 Ian Miers yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Zerocoin protocol - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Ian Miers Receives Test of Time Award at IEEE Security Symposium | UMD Department of Computer Science cs.umd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin eprint.iacr.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. Ian Miers cs.umd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Zcash - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Building an Anonymous Bitcoin like Crypto-Currency - Department Seminars cs.jhu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. Five New Faculty Join UMIACS | University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies umiacs.umd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Zexe: Enabling Decentralized Private Computation eprint.iacr.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  9. Zerocoin to zk-creds: Modern ZK History with Ian Miers - ZK PODCAST zeroknowledge.fm. Checked 22 October 2026.
  10. UMD Researchers Strong Showing with 24 Papers and an Outstanding Paper Award at ICML 2023 | UMD Department of Computer Science cs.umd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  11. [2301.10226] A Watermark for Large Language Models arxiv.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  12. Congratulations to the #ICML2023 outstanding paper award winners - AIhub aihub.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  13. Madars Virza wins Test of Time Award at 2024 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy — MIT Media Lab media.mit.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  14. Ian Miers | UMD Department of Computer Science cs.umd.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.
  15. CyLab Seminar: Ian Miers - CyLab Security and Privacy Institute cylab.cmu.edu. Checked 22 October 2026.