Dear IACR members

Here is a brief update on IACR matters as of CRYPTO 2014.


***Communications and website

First of all, I would like to thank Christopher Wolf for his service
and dedication to the IACR in his role as Newsletter Editor (later,
Communications Secretary).  From 2009 until this summer, he has led
the communications and publicity activities of the IACR and made the
website an interesting and interactive experience.

The Board of Directors has appointed Mike Rosulek (Oregon State
University, US) as the Communications Secretary; Yu Yu (Shanghai Jiao
Tong University, CN) also joins the communications team and serves as
one of the webmasters.



***Cryptography Research Fund for Students

Thanks to the generous donation of 1 Mio. USD from Cryptography
Research Inc. (a division of Rambus) the IACR has created the
*Cryptography Research Fund for Students.*

The fund aims at promoting cryptology to students and supporting
scholarly work in the field.  With its help, the IACR can greatly
increase its support for students in cryptology through:

  1) Waiving the registration fee for student speakers at EUROCRYPT,
  CRYPTO, ASIACRYPT and, now, also at CHES, FSE, TCC and PKC;

  2) Expanding its support for Cryptology Schools (see below);

  3) Further activities, as coordinated by an Endowment Committee that
  oversees the fund. (Please contact its chair, Greg Rose, with more
  ideas.)

The IACR has created an investment fund with a conservative strategy
so that this program can be funded in perpetuity.  Combined with a
smaller commitment from the IACR, the sum in the fund can support the
ongoing activities detailed above as well as let the capital keep
up with inflation.



***Parallel sessions

In response to the growth of the field over the last years, the Board
in 2011 sent a message to Program Chairs and Program Committees of the
three main conferences asking them "to accept substantially more
papers than used to be the case and to work with their General Chair
for the logistics to make this possible."  As one can see from the
publication statistics over the recent years
(http://www.iacr.org/publications/statistics.html) the message has
been received partially, but not uniformly implemented.  As of today,
the Board believes that this effort should go further.  During the
recent meeting at CRYPTO, a majority of the Board expressed the opinion
that a program of, say, 60 or more talks should be arranged at least
partially in parallel sessions.

Hence, during its meeting at CRYPTO, the Board has decided to ask the
Program Chairs and Committees of the three IACR conferences in 2015
"to have parallel sessions for a significant part of the program."  It
is intended for 2015 only.  At a discussion during the membership
meeting, a vote indicated a clear majority in favor of this change for
2015, but there was also a significant minority against.  After
ASIACRYPT 2015 a referendum among the IACR membership will be held for
deciding whether the format should be kept like this.

Per IACR's policy, Program Chairs and Committees are responsible for
the scientific program; the General Chairs are responsible for the
logistics and the organization.  The Board guides these processes and
ensures continuity across IACR's activities.



***Cryptology Schools

The Board has approved funding for the first three IACR Cryptology
Schools, which take place later this year and next year.

  1) School on Cryptographic Attacks (http://attackschool.di.uminho.pt/)
     13-17 October 2014, Porto, Portugal

  2) School on Design and Security of Cryptographic Algorithms and Devices,
     5-10 July 2015 (tentative), location to be decided.

  3) Asian Workshop on Symmetric Key Cryptography - Cryptology School,
     19-22 December 2014, Chennai, India  (http://ask2014.iiitd.ac.in/)

See the website  http://www.iacr.org/schools/ for more information.



***Elections

There will be elections for three IACR Director positions later this
year; nominations are now open and due by October 10, 2014.  Please
consider running and see the announcement on the website:
  http://www.iacr.org/elections/2014/



Regards,

  Christian Cachin
  IACR President