Keewoo Lee

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Keewoo Lee, 2000 Keewoo Lee, 2020 Keewoo Lee, 2026 Keewoo Lee, 2026
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I am a cryptography researcher at Ethereum Foundation. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, hosted by Sanjam Garg. I obtained my Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences at Seoul National University, advised by Jung Hee Cheon.

I am broadly interested in cryptography from theory to practice. Currently, my research focus is on cryptographic primitives for secure computation (e.g., homomorphic encryption, secure multiparty computation) and their applications (e.g., private database query).

Publications

Authors are listed in alphabetical order by last name, unless an asterisk (*) is indicated. [AMS Statement]

  1. *Lean-GAP: A Dataset of Formalized Graduate Algebra Problems Seewoo Lee, Byung-Hak Hwang, Hyojae Lim, Jihoon Hyun, Ilkyoo Choi, Yeachan Park, Jineon Baek, Hyukpyo Hong, Keewoo Lee, Jaeseong Heo, Hyungryul Baik, Chul-hee Lee, Kyu-Hwan Lee Preprint · 2026 · arxiv
  2. A Cryptographic Framework for Proof of Personhood Arka Rai Choudhuri, Sanjam Garg, Keewoo Lee, Mike Lodder, Guru Vamsi Policharla, Rohit Sinha Preprint · 2026 · eprint
  3. Qurrency: a quantum-secure, private, and auditable platform for digital assets Arka Rai Choudhuri, Sanjam Garg, Matthew Gregoire, Keewoo Lee, Mike Lodder, Hart Montgomery, Guru Vamsi Policharla, Jim Zhang Preprint · 2026 · eprint
  4. Barely Doubly-Efficient SimplePIR Keewoo Lee Crypto 2026 · eprint
  5. Bypassing Prompt Guards in Production with Controlled-Release Prompting Jaiden Fairoze, Sanjam Garg, Keewoo Lee, Mingyuan Wang USENIX Security 2026 · link · arxiv · media (English) · media (Korean)
  6. SophOMR: Improved Oblivious Message Retrieval from SIMD-Aware Homomorphic Compression Keewoo Lee, Yongdong Yeo USENIX Security 2026 · link · eprint · code
  7. *Verifiable PIR with Small Client Storage Mayank Rathee, Keewoo Lee, Raluca Ada Popa IEEE S&P 2026 · doi · eprint
  8. More Efficient Lattice-based OLE from Circuit-private Linear HE with Polynomial Overhead Leo de Castro, Duhyeong Kim, Miran Kim, Keewoo Lee, Seonhong Min, Yongsoo Song IACR CiC · 2026 · doi · eprint
  9. *Leveraging FPGAs for Homomorphic Matrix-Vector Multiplication in Oblivious Message Retrieval Grant Bosworth, Keewoo Lee, Sunwoong Kim ACSSC 2025 · doi · arxiv
  10. Bit Security as Cost to Demonstrate Advantage Keewoo Lee IACR CiC · 2024 · doi · eprint
  11. VeriSimplePIR: Verifiability in SimplePIR at No Online Cost for Honest Servers Leo de Castro, Keewoo Lee USENIX Security 2024 · link · eprint
  12. SIMD-Aware Homomorphic Compression and Application to Private Database Query Jung Hee Cheon, Keewoo Lee, Jai Hyun Park, Yongdong Yeo Preprint · 2024 · arxiv · code
  13. *Asynchronous Federated Learning with Directed Acyclic Graph-based Blockchain in Edge Computing: Overview, Design, and Challenges Seoyoung Ko, Keewoo Lee, Hyunhum Cho, Yoonjae Hwang, Huisu Jang Expert Systems with Applications · 2023 · doi
  14. Limits of Polynomial Packings for $\mathbb{Z}_{p^k}$ and $\mathbb{F}_{p^k}$ Jung Hee Cheon, Keewoo Lee Eurocrypt 2022 · doi · eprint · slides · video
  15. On the Scaled Inverse of $(x^i - x^j)$ modulo Cyclotomic Polynomial of the form $\Phi_{p^s}(x)$ or $\Phi_{p^s q^t}(x)$ Jung Hee Cheon, Dongwoo Kim, Duhyeong Kim, Keewoo Lee JKMS · 2022 · doi · arxiv
  16. *HELPSE: Homomorphic Encryption-based Lightweight Password Strength Estimation in a Virtual Keyboard System Michael Cho, Keewoo Lee, Sunwoong Kim GLSVLSI 2022 · doi
  17. MHz2k: MPC from HE over $\mathbb{Z}_{2^k}$ with New Packing, Simpler Reshare, and Better ZKP Jung Hee Cheon, Dongwoo Kim, Keewoo Lee Crypto 2021 · doi · eprint · slides · video
  18. *Accelerating Fully Homomorphic Encryption Through Architecture-Centric Analysis and Optimization Wonkyung Jung, Eojin Lee, Sangpyo Kim, Jongmin Kim, Namhoon Kim, Keewoo Lee, Chohong Min, Jung Hee Cheon, Jung Ho Ahn IEEE Access · 2021 · doi · arxiv
  19. Gimme That Model!: A Trusted ML Model Trading Protocol Laia Amorós, Syed Mahbub Hafiz, Keewoo Lee, M. Caner Tol Protecting Privacy through Homomorphic Encryption (Book Chapter) · 2021 · doi · arxiv · video
  20. *Hardware Architecture of a Number Theoretic Transform for a Bootstrappable RNS-based Homomorphic Encryption Scheme Sunwoong Kim, Keewoo Lee, Wonhee Cho, Yujin Nam, Jung Hee Cheon, Rob A. Rutenbar FCCM 2020 · doi
  21. Numerical Method for Comparison on Homomorphically Encrypted Numbers Jung Hee Cheon, Dongwoo Kim, Duhyeong Kim, Hun Hee Lee, Keewoo Lee Asiacrypt 2019 · doi · eprint
  22. *FPGA-based Accelerators of Fully Pipelined Modular Multipliers for Homomorphic Encryption Sunwoong Kim, Keewoo Lee, Wonhee Cho, Jung Hee Cheon, Rob A. Rutenbar ReConFig 2019 · doi
  23. Efficient Identity-Based Encryption from LWR Jung Hee Cheon, Haejin Cho, Jaewook Jung, Joohee Lee, Keewoo Lee ICISC 2019 · doi
  24. *A Secure SNP Panel Scheme using Homomorphically Encrypted K-mers without SNP Calling on the User Side Sungjoon Park, Minsu Kim, Seokjun Seo, Seungwan Hong, Kyoohyung Han, Keewoo Lee, Jung Hee Cheon, Sun Kim BMC Genomics · 2019 · doi
  25. *Logistic Regression Model Training based on the Approximate Homomorphic Encryption Andrey Kim, Yongsoo Song, Miran Kim, Keewoo Lee, Jung Hee Cheon BMC Medical Genomics · 2018 · doi · eprint
  26. Privacy-Preserving Computations of Predictive Medical Models with Minimax Approximation and Non-Adjacent Form Jung Hee Cheon, Jinhyuck Jeong, Joohee Lee, Keewoo Lee WAHC 2017 · doi

Writings

  • Sharded PIR Design for the Ethereum State (with Ali Atiia) eth.research · 2026 · link
  • 현대암호학의 태동 (The Dawn of Modern Cryptography, in Korean) Horizon, KIAS webzine · 2025–2026 · part 1 · part 2 · part 3 · part 4

Honors

  • Distinguished Reviewer Award, IEEE S&P 2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy · 2026
  • Sejong Science Fellowship National Research Foundation of Korea · 2024–2025
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award (Best Award) Korean Mathematical Society · 2024
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award (Best Award) College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University · 2023
  • Best Paper Runner-up, Asiacrypt 2019 (Invited to Journal of Cryptology) International Association for Cryptologic Research · 2019
  • Global Ph.D. Fellowship National Research Foundation of Korea · 2018–2023
  • First Place, iDASH Genomic Data Privacy & Security Competition (link) iDASH National Center (NIH) · 2017

Service

  • Program Committee Asiacrypt (2025, 2026), IEEE S&P (2026), ACM CCS (2026), USENIX Security (2027)
  • Editorial Board IACR CiC (2025)