Yael Tauman Kalai is a pioneering theoretical computer scientist who has made significant contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer science. Despite being a troublemaker in high school, she discovered her passion for math in college and realized its application in securing information through computers. Her work in cryptography has focused on topics such as leaking secrets and verifying computations in cloud computing. Kalai has also delved into the area of quantum computing and its implications for security. She was particularly fascinated by the development of a classical, computationally secure proof for verifying quantum computations by Urmila Mahadev.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-cryptographer-who-ensures-we-can-trust-our-computers-20230727/