As the world moves closer to the era of quantum computing, the field of cryptography faces new challenges. Post-quantum cryptography is emerging as a vital area of study, focusing on cryptographic systems that can withstand the computational power of quantum computers. This june, BCAM hosted a summer school, framed within the Severo Ochoa course programme aimed at introducing participants to several of the leading post-quantum Public Key Cryptosystems, Signature schemes, and their cryptoanalysis. The program is targeted at Ph.D., Master's, final-year undergraduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

The summer school began with foundational courses on cryptography, providing participants with essential background knowledge, and then, delved into the core subjects of post-quantum cryptography, offering an in-depth understanding of lattice-based cryptosystems, coding theory, multivariate cryptography, and more.
One of the distinguished speakers of the event is Jintai Ding, a renowned expert in post-quantum cryptography, and a researcher Ikerbasque Visiting Research Professor at BCAM and Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Ding is known for his contributions to lattice-based cryptography, which is one of the key areas of post-quantum cryptosystems.

Jintai Ding (Dean of the School of Mathematics and Physics, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University & Ikerbasque Visiting Research Professor at BCAM) delivered the opening keynote speech, entitled “Post-Quantum Cryptography, a new era”, in the CyberIndustry Congress 2025, organized by TECNALIA Research & Innovation and Bizkaia Enpresa Digitala.
Ding opened the congress with an insightful presentation on the latest trends and developments in the field of cybersecurity, particularly focusing on the implications of quantum computing on cryptography. His expertise in post-quantum cryptography made him a key figure at this prestigious event, highlighting the growing importance of preparing for the quantum revolution in the cybersecurity landscape.
Azkuna Zentroa hosted this event, which aims to become the annual meeting point of reference in the Basque Country for the entire cybersecurity value chain. There, specialised technology was be connected with the specific demands of key strategic sectors for the Basque economy, such as Industry, Energy, Health and the emerging Aerospace sector.

Lorenzo Nagar is PhD Student at BCAM since January 2021 (former Research Technician 07/01/20 - 31/12/20) in the group "Modelling and Simulation in Life and Material Sciences". He obtained the La Caixa - INPhINIT 2020 fellowship joining the project "Optimising performance of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) in molecular simulation and computational statistics", supervised by Prof. Akhmatskaya (MSLMS group) and Prof. Sanz-Serna (Universidad Carlo III de Madrid).
His research interest concerns the study of dynamical systems and the development and improvement of numerical methods for mathematical models. He is working on the improvement of the Hybrid/Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods (HMC) and its Generalized version (GHMC) applied to molecular simulation and statistics, focusing on the adaptive multi-stage integration schemes.
Nagar obtained the Master's degree in Mathematics at Universitá degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II" in 2019 and the Bachelor's degree in Mathematics in 2016 at the same institution.

Mario Martinez has been a PhD student at BCAM since June 2021, working within the Machine Learning group. His research is focused on advancing artificial intelligence in clinical contexts, particularly through learning using privileged information (LUPI). He explores techniques such as knowledge distillation and multi-task learning to enhance supervised classification. Martinez obtained a BSc in Physics from the University of Murcia in 2019 and an MSc in Data Science from the Open University of Catalonia in 2021.

His thesis, titled Advances in learning using privileged information for supervised classification is under the supervision of Dr. Jose A. Lozano (Scientific Director of BCAM) and Dr. Iñaki Inza (EHU).