Maria Eichlseder

Maria Eichlseder is associate professor in Cryptography at Graz University of Technology. Her research interests include the design and cryptanalysis of symmetric cryptographic algorithms, such as hash functions and authenticated encryption algorithms and their underlying primitives. She co-designed Ascon, a lightweight authenticated cipher that was selected by NIST as new standard for lightweight cryptography in 2023. She defended her Ph.D. sub auspiciis praesidentis in 2018 and visited Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Radboud University Nijmegen as a guest researcher. Prior, she studied Computer Science and Technical Mathematics at Graz University of Technology. She has received several awards for her work, including an ERC Starting Grant in 2025.