Who is in the project team and what are their roles?
Prof. Roman Oliynykov
Roman is a research fellow at IOG and a professor at leading Ukrainian V.N. Karazin National University, having deep expertise in blockchain systems, cryptography and cybersecurity. His prior professional experience includes leading the team that developed Ukrainian cryptographic standards: the Kalyna block cipher (DSTU 7624:2014) and the Kupyna hash function (DSTU 7564:2014), training of cyber police officers, giving lectures on decentralised ledger technologies, cryptography, software and network security in Ukraine, South Korea and Norway. He published over 100 academic papers; the most important results, including ones related to Catalyst, were presented at top-tier conferences and journals. Roman joined IOG in 2016 and contributed to Ouroboros Classic, and since 2017 has been working on scientific research for Catalyst, covering voting protocols, incentive analysis and other directions.
Dr. Philip Lazos
Philip is a research fellow at IOG, working on all things related to the economics and incentives of blockchains (such as transaction processing, governance, tokenomics and stablecoins). Before that, he was a postdoc at the Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Oxford. He has many publications in top tier venues in Computational Economics, Artificial Intelligence, Operations Research and Algorithms and Complexity. Philip has a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the National Technical University of Athens and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Oxford.
Prof. Bingsheng Zhang
Bingsheng Zhang is currently a ZJU100 Professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China. He is the PI of National Key R&D Programmes of China. Before that, he was program director of Lancaster University’s master’s degree in cybersecurity and leader of the university’s security research group. He specializes in cryptography, multi-party computation, verifiable electronic voting (e-voting), and zero-knowledge proofs. He has published over 60 papers at top-tier conferences and journals in cryptography and security, such as Eurocrypt, Asiacrypt, PKC, CCS, NDSS, PODC, Infocom, IEEE TIFS, IEEE TDSC, and IEEE TSC, etc. He is the editor of ISO/IEC 27565 "Guidelines on privacy preservation based on zero knowledge proofs" and the secretary of IEEE P2842 workgroup on "Recommended Practice for Secure Multi-party Computation".
Dr. Dmytro Kaidalov
Dmytro is a blockchain researcher, cryptographer, and software engineer. He studied information security and obtained a PhD in the field of symmetric cryptography. With over 15 years of experience in the tech industry, Dmytro has spent more than seven years specifically in the blockchain space. Currently serving as a research engineer at Input Output, he focuses on designing and prototyping new protocols and systems, including consensus schemes, stablecoins, voting schemes, cross-chain protocols, and more. Dmytro has been actively contributing to Catalyst since its inception. He played a major role in developing the privacy-preserving voting scheme that is one of the key elements in Catalyst. He also contributed to the design of the review system. Overall, Dmytro has amassed extensive knowledge and expertise in blockchain voting systems.
Prof. Lyudmila Kovalchuk
Lyudmila is a mathematician, cryptographer and blockchain researcher. She studied mathematics and obtained a PhD in the field of Probability theory and Mathematical statistics, and Dr. Habil. in Cryptology. She has been working in blockchain research for more than 7 years, started in 2016 as a research fellow at IOG. Lyudmila has a great teaching experience for over 20 years, working at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnical Institute named after Ihor Sykorskii” and other universities as a professor. She is the author of National and harmonised Standards of Ukraine in Cryptology. Lyudmila has over 40 academic papers in leading academic conferences and journals, and more than 20 papers among those are published with IOG research - blockchain security and privacy, ZKP, analysis and proofs of voting systems properties in Catalyst.
Dr. Andrii Nastenko
Andrii is a research engineer at IOG. He graduated from Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics, Ukraine as a Master of Science, then a postgraduate as PhD in Information security with a thesis on symmetric cryptography. He participated in numerous projects on cryptography-space research and information security-related software development resulting in a 15-year expertise with 7 years specifically in blockchain technologies. Since 2016 when Andrii started as a Research Fellow in IOG (IOHK) he became a co-creator of the Cardano Catalyst treasury system including the underlying voting protocol and participated in the initial research for Midnight. He also acted as a co-developer in the initial phase of Zen cryptocurrency project. Having accumulated a significant amount of knowledge in distributed information technologies now he is focused on the research of the DAOs-related voting schemes together with the development of prospective distributed voting crypto-protocols providing optimal performance, quantum resistance, coercion resistance, adaptive security and other top-edge properties desired for modern distributed voting systems.
Dr. Mariia Rodinko
Mariia Rodinko received a Ph.D. degree in computer science at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. She has been working for IOG since 2016. Currently, Mariia is IOG Junior Research Fellow and an associate professor at Systems and Technologies Modeling Department at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. In IOG she mainly concentrates on projects dedicated to blockchain governance, decentralized auctions and analysis of distributed consensus protocols. She also has a solid background in cryptography and cryptanalysis. Mariia has 24 research publications in leading academic conferences and journals.
Dr. Oleksii Shevtsov
Olexiy has been involved in IOG research since 2016. His research merges new industry problems with known frameworks of social choice, analysis and measure. His academic background is in information security, where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in the field of public key cryptography. He is particularly involved in the voting mechanisms and consensus among participants, especially in reaching fairness and verifiability.
Zeyuan Yin received his B.E. degree in Computer Science from Shandong University in 2021. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Zhejiang University. His research interests mainly focus on electronic voting (e-voting), blockchain, and zero-knowledge proofs. So far, he has published a paper on IEEE TIFS, and he won the third prize in the WPPCC 2022 Privacy-Preserving Computing Competition and the "Outstanding Team Award" in the Xinghe Cup 2023 Privacy-Preserving Computing Competition.
Dr. Kenric Nelson is the Founder and President of Photrek, LLC which is developing novel approaches to Complex Decision Systems, including risk-aware machine intelligence, particularly for environmental risks, and governance policies for decentralized communities. He served on the Cardano Catalyst Circle governance council and is leading a revitalization of Sociocracy for All’s @work circle. Prior to launching Photrek, Nelson was a Research Professor with Boston University Electrical & Computer Engineering (2014-2019) and Sr. Principal Systems Engineer with Raytheon Company (2007-2019). He has pioneered novel information metrics that are improving the training of machine learning algorithms. His education in electrical engineering includes a B.S. degree Summa Cum Laude from Tulane University, a M.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Ph.D. degree from Boston University. His management education includes an Executive Certificate from MIT Sloan and participation in NSF’s I-Corp program.
Megan Hess, Communications Lead at Photrek, serves as the facilitator in Photrek’s Cardano Circle, coordinating initiatives supporting governance and risk intelligence. Megan collaborated with Photrek on their first Catalyst project, Diversifying Voting Influence. She was selected by her Photrek colleagues to represent the contracting team on Photrek’s Advisory Circle. Megan is acting as the Sub-Regional coordination lead with Wada for Central Africa, Francophone liaison, and Cameroon Team Lead. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Denver and has taught Middle/High School Math and Physics.
Juana Attieh, product lead at Photrek, leading the Cardano circle and facilitating the SNET circle. Co-founder of Cardano MENA and LALKUL Stake Pool. Interim chair at the Membership and Community Committee at Intersect. Advisor at AMLOK.tech. Juana is committed to fostering decentralized governance and contributing towards optimal solutions for self-organizing systems. With her work, Juana seeks to reimagine societies, unlock untapped potential, and provide inclusive opportunities to those who need them most.
Dr. André L. M. Vilela has investigated the dynamics of interacting agent-based models in statistical mechanics, combining phase transitions, critical phenomena, and finite-size scaling analysis with sociophysics, econophysics, and complex network theory. His research focuses on unveiling the underlying mathematical mechanisms that drive the behavior of agents in groups within social networks and financial markets, and how their decisions promote active collective phenomena. He is a Distinguished Visiting Scientist at Boston University, an Associate Professor at the University of Pernambuco, and Former Coordinator of the Materials Physics undergraduate program. His education in Physics includes completing a B.S. degree With High Honors Award, an MSc. degree with Distinction Award, and a Ph.D. degree from the Federal University of Pernambuco
Steven Johnson: Catalyst Lead Architect
Steven will lead the evaluation and analysis of new cryptographic protocol and their effect on the Catalyst Hermes and voting architecture
Kriss Baird, GM and Head of Product
Kriss will be principally accountable for project management, ensuring all deliverables are produced to a high quality. He will provide product analysis of use-cases for alternative voting mechanisms and will lead on the dissemination activities in collaboration with IOG Research and Photrek. Kriss will be responsible for managing internal resources required to deliver the project within budget and on-time.