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Curriculum vitae of Yongjun Zhao — Research Scientist at TikTok.

General Information

Full Name Yongjun Zhao (赵永骏)
Email foreverjun.zhao@gmail.com
Homepage yongjunzhao.github.io
ORCID 0000-0001-7380-3806
Languages Cantonese (native), English (fluent), Mandarin (fluent)

Research Interests

  • Privacy-enhancing technologies
    • Private set operations
    • Privacy-preserving machine learning
    • Privacy-preserving payment and e-cash systems
    • Cryptocurrency and blockchain privacy
  • Cryptographic solutions for cloud storage
    • Searchable encryption
    • Proofs of retrievability (PoR) and proofs of ownership (PoW)
    • Message-locked encryption (MLE)
    • Secure deduplication
  • Digital signatures and anonymous authentication
    • Anonymous credentials and tokens
    • Lattice-based signatures
    • Threshold and accountable signatures

Work Experience

  • Dec 2022 – present
    Research Scientist
    TikTok, Privacy Innovation Lab
    • Research and development of privacy-enhancing technologies for large-scale systems.
  • Jul 2022 – Nov 2022
    Senior Research Fellow
    Strategic Centre for Research in Privacy-Preserving Technologies and Systems (SCRiPTS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Oct 2019 – Jun 2022
    Research Fellow
    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • Sep 2018 – Aug 2019
    Research Assistant
    Department of Information Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Education

  • Sep 2013 – Jun 2018
    Ph.D. in Information Engineering
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    • Dissertation: "Privacy Enhancing Technologies: New Primitives and New Systems"
    • Advisor: Prof. Sherman S. M. Chow
  • Sep 2011 – Jun 2013
    B.Eng. in Information Engineering (First Class Honors)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Sep 2009 – Jun 2011
    Undergraduate Study
    Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

Honors and Awards

  • 2022 — Runner-up Prize (Collaboration with AngelPowerFL, Tencent), iDASH Privacy & Security Workshop 2022 – Secure Genome Analysis Competition, Track 4: Secure Record Linkage
  • 2022 — Top Reviewer Award, The 22nd Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium
  • 2016 — Outstanding Tutors Award, Faculty of Engineering, CUHK
  • 2016 — Teaching Assistant Award for 1st Term 2016–17, Department of Information Engineering, CUHK
  • 2016 — Teaching Assistant Award for 2nd Term 2015–16, Department of Information Engineering, CUHK
  • 2013 — Dean’s List 2012/2013, Faculty of Engineering, CUHK
  • 2012 — Dean’s List 2011/2012, Faculty of Engineering, CUHK
  • 2012 — Chung Chi College Departmental Prize 2011/2012, CUHK (HK$10,000)
  • 2012 — Chung Chi College Scholarship 2011/2012, CUHK (HK$2,000)
  • 2011 — National Scholarship for 2010/2011, Sun Yat-sen University (RMB ¥8,000)
  • 2011 — First Prize Scholarship of SYSU Scholarship Fund for 2010/2011, Sun Yat-sen University (RMB ¥2,000)
  • 2010 — Third Prize Scholarship of SYSU Scholarship Fund for 2009/2010, Sun Yat-sen University (RMB ¥1,000)

Professional Activities

  • Session Chair
    • ACM CCS (2023)
    • Asiacrypt (2021)
  • Program Committee
    • 2026: AAAI
    • 2025: AAAI, IEEE Global Blockchain Conference
    • 2024: AAAI, PPAI, ICDCS
    • 2023: AAAI (Main Track & AI for Social Impact Track), PoPETs
    • 2022: AAAI (AI for Social Impact Track), EAI AC3, ICICS, PoPETs, SACMAT, SeCrypt, UbiSec, USENIX Security Artifact Evaluation
    • 2021: APKC, DPML, EAI AC3, ICICS, ISPEC, IEEE S&P (Shadow PC), PoPETs, SeCrypt, TrustCom, UbiSec, USENIX Security Artifact Evaluation
    • 2020: Globecom CISS, ISPEC, NSS, SeCrypt, TrustCom
    • 2019: 3ICT, C2SI, Globecom CISS, ICPADS, SeCrypt
    • 2018: AsiaCCS-SCC, BlockSEA, NSS, SeCrypt, SecureComm
    • 2017: CANS, InsCrypt, SeCrypt, CyberSecurity (CS)
  • External Reviewer
    • 2026: IEEE TETC, IEEE TPDS
    • 2025: IEEE TDSC, IEEE TGCN, IEEE TIFS
    • 2024: CRYPTO, IEEE TCC, IEEE TDSC
    • 2023: IEEE TIFS, IEEE TDSC
    • 2022: ACNS, AsiaCCS, CCS, CT-RSA, ESORICS, IWSEC, IEEE Systems Journal, IET Information Security, The Computer Journal
    • 2021: AsiaCCS, ESORICS, EuroS&P, ICDCS, PKC, PoPETs, USENIX Security, ACM TOPS, IEEE TDSC, IET Information Security
    • 2020: ACNS, AsiaCCS, Asiacrypt, ESORICS, IEEE TC, IEEE TCC, Sensors, The Computer Journal
    • 2019: ACNS, AsiaCCS, Asiacrypt, CNS, CRYPTO, ESORICS, ISC, ISPEC, PoPETs, SecureComm, IEEE TCC, FGCS, JISA
    • 2018: AsiaCCS, AfricaCrypt, CNS, ESORICS, ICICS, ISC, PoPETs, PST, Computer Networks (SI), IEEE TIFS, IEEE TCC, FGCS
    • 2017: ACNS, Asiacrypt, AfricaCrypt, AsiaCCS, AsiaCCS-APKC, AsiaCCS-SCC, C2SI, ESORICS, Globecom, ISC, PST, SACMAT, WPES, CoSe, JISA
    • 2016: ACNS, AfricaCrypt, AsiaCCS, Asiacrypt, APKC, CANS, CNS, ESORICS, Globecom, ICC, ICPADS, Inscrypt, ISC, ISPEC, POST, SACMAT, SecureComm, WPES, Computers & Security, IJIS
    • 2015: AsiaCCS, Asiacrypt, CNS, CANS, Financial Cryptography, ICDCS, ICICS, Infocom, InsCrypt, ISC, PKC, SeCrypt, SmartGridComm, PerCom
    • 2014: ACM CCS, AsiaCCS, AsiaPKC, Asiacrypt, CNS, ESORICS, HPCC, ICICS, ISC, ISPEC, SmartGridComm
    • 2013: InsCrypt

Seminars and Talks

  • [Jul 2025] Lightning Talks: Making PETs Work for You — PETs Summit, Singapore
  • [Aug 2024] Challenges in Privacy and Security of Generative AI Models — Trustworthy Data Science and AI Lab, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
  • [Jul 2024] Synergizing DP and MPC for Privacy-Preserving Ad Measurement — Privacy-Enhancing Technology Summit Asia-Pacific 2024, Singapore
  • [Jul 2024] PrivacyGo: TikTok’s Initiative in Synergistic PETs — STACK Meetup, GovTech, Singapore
  • [Sep 2023] Protecting User Privacy in Private Set Intersection: A Journey Toward Mitigating User Tracking — School of Computing, National University of Singapore
  • [Sep 2023] Protecting User Privacy in Private Set Intersection: A Journey Toward Mitigating User Tracking — School of Computing & Information Systems, Singapore Management University
  • [Aug 2022] Private Set Intersection: Introduction and Applications — Joint Workshop by ISACA SG, IAPP SG KnowledgeNet and NTU
  • [May 2022] Towards Efficient and Practical Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning — Department of Computing, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong

Teaching Experience

  • 2021 – 2022
    RE4001: Renaissance Capstone Project (co-supervisor)
    Nanyang Technological University
    • Project: Privacy-preserving matchmaking in social networks
    • Students: Ho Alexander Joong Khuan, Lim Collin Tian Jun, Wong Vincent Yong Sheng
  • 2020 – 2021
    PS101: Introduction to Privacy-preserving Secure Data Computation & Analytics (Instructor)
    Nanyang Technological University
  • Jan 2017 – May 2017
    IEMS5710: Cryptography, Information Security and Privacy (Part-time Instructor)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • 2015 – 2016
    IERG2051: Signals and Systems (Teaching Assistant)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • 2015 – 2016
    IERG3310: Computer Networks (Teaching Assistant)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • 2015 – 2016
    IERG4130: Introduction to Cyber Security (Teaching Assistant)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong
    • Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
  • 2014 – 2015
    IERG4160: Image and Video Processing (Teaching Assistant)
    The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Skills

  • Programming
    • LaTeX, C/C++, Python, Java, C#, Web Programming, MATLAB
  • Languages
    • Cantonese (native), English (fluent), Mandarin (fluent)