Alexander Hicks

I am a researcher and currently work for the Ethereum Foundation where I am leading an effort to expand the use of formal verification to secure codebases that are critical to Ethereum. I am also interested in the interaction between formal verification and AI, in this context as well as other. This follows on from my past research on how to make more open, decentralized, and transparent systems in which user privacy is preserved, and the relation between these social goals and a system's underlying technical mechanisms.

I obtained a PhD with a thesis on the design and usage of transparency enhancing technologies based on cryptographic logs under the supervision of Steven Murdoch in the information security research group. Before this, I obtained a BSc in Theoretical Physics from Queen Mary University of London and a MASt in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, where I also spent a summer working on the formal verification of Mathematics using Isabelle.