Yesem Peker

Education and Certifications

• Ph.D. in Mathematics

Biography

I received my B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Mathematics Departments from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. I also completed my M.S. in Mathematics in the same university. I received my Ph.D. in Mathematics from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN in the USA. I was fascinated by the beauty and power of mathematical thinking and the theories in mathematics during my undergraduate studies and drawn into applications of these theories in particular to information security in my graduate studies. My dissertation was on key exchange primitives -an area of cryptography where two users agree on a secret value over a public channel such as the Internet. My research focuses on designing cryptosystems whose security relies on hard problems that are different from the problems that the systems in use today rely on.

After completing my PhD I, I went on to teach Mathematics first at Pomona College in Claremont, CA, then at Randolph College, in Lynchburg, VA. I joined the TSYS School of Computer Science in the Spring of 2013. Teaching has always been a passion of mine. I feel that I finally have found the perfect place for me where I get to teach, do research on various applications of mathematical theories, and learn new things everyday!

Academic Areas

• Cryptography