Jérôme Govinden

I’m a Cryptography Researcher (Contractor) at TII in the Protocols Team. My research centers around symmetric-key cryptography, particularly on the efficient design, analysis, and implementation of provably secure schemes with real-world applications.

I obtained my PhD in Computer Science from TU Darmstadt in 2025, under the supervision of Jean Paul Degabriele. In Fall 2024, I visited the Cryptography Group at the University of Washington, hosted by Stefano Tessaro. Previously, I was a research intern in the Cryptography Research Center of TII (UAE) and in the LIP6 Computer Science Laboratory (France). I hold a Master degree in Mathematics (Paris Cité University) and Computer Science (Sorbonne University).

You can find me on linkedin, and check out my CV and publications.

Latest News

(Jan. 2026) I have started a new position as a Cryptography Researcher (Contractor) at TII in the Protocols Team.

(Dec. 2025) I have successfully defended my PhD thesis on Improving the Security and Efficiency of Symmetric Primitives in Cryptography.

(Jul. 2025) Jean Paul Degabriele presented our proposal (with Jan Gilcher and Kenneth G. Paterson) for an Improved ChaCha-based AEAD Scheme as a work item of the CFRG at the IETF 123 meeting.

(May 2025) Our paper Succinct PPRFs via Memory-Tight Reductions (with Joël Alwen, Chris Brzuska, Patrick Harasser, and Stefano Tessaro) was accepted to CRYPTO 2025.

Academic Services

External Reviewer
2025: ACM CCS, ASIACRYPT
2024: CRYPTO, ACNS
2023: CRYPTO, ACM CCS
2022: CRYPTO, EUROCRYPT, ACM CCS, CT-RSA
2021: CT-RSA, Financial Cryptography

Teaching

Technische Universität Darmstadt
Winter semester 2021/2022: Teaching assistant for the lecture Symmetric Cryptography by Jean Paul Degabriele
Winter semester 2020/2021: Teaching assistant for the lecture Symmetric Cryptography by Jean Paul Degabriele

Thesis supervision

Master thesis
A. J. T.: Code-based security proof for CCM, 2026
A. C. T.: Formalism of the symmetric encryption mechanisms in the PDF 2.0 specification, 2025
Bachelor thesis
P. H.: Performance Analysis of Multilinear Galois Mode and variants, 2024
C. M.: Analysis of the Impact of Dovetail Routing on the Anonymity of the Lightning Network (co-supervised by Jean Paul Degabriele), 2022