She is interested in security, systems, and applied cryptography. Raluca developed practical systems (such as CryptDB and Mylar) that protect data confidentiality by computing over encrypted data, as well as designed new encryption schemes that underlie these systems. Some of her work has had early impact, with Google applying CryptDB's design to their SQL-like BigQuery service and surgeons at Boston's Newton-Wellesley hospital using Mylar to secure their medical application. Raluca has received her PhD in computer science as well as her two BS degrees, in computer science and in mathematics, from MIT. She is the recipient of a George M. Sprowls Award for best MIT CS doctoral thesis, a Google PhD Fellowship, a Johnson award for best CS Masters of Engineering thesis from MIT, and a CRA Outstanding undergraduate award from the ACM.