Liran Li
School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. liranl@cs.cmu.edu
I don't have an office yet.
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
My name is Liran Li (simplified Chinese: 李[Li] 栎然[Liran]), but you can also call me Stephen. I’m an MSCS student at the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, working with Aayush Jain. My primary research interest lies in the foundations of cryptography. I also explore broader topics in theoretical computer science, quantum computing, and computational algebraic topology. My detailed CV can be obtained here. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia, where I was an Echols Scholar and had the privilege of working with Thomas Koberda and Wei-Kai Lin as a Distinguished Major in both Mathematics and Computer Science.
During the summer of 2025, I visited Professor Penghui Yao’s group at Nanjing University.
I was born and raised in Nanjing city (simplified Chinese: 南京), People’s Republic of China. I also met my girlfriend, Tianshu Huang, there at our shared alma mater: Nanjing Foreign Languages School.
Education
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Nanjing Lixue Primary School (南京市力学小学): 2009.9-2015.6.
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Nanjing Foreign Languages School (Middle School and High School, 南京外国语学校本部): 2015.9-2021.6.
- University of Virginia: 2021.8-2025.5.
- Bachelor of Arts with Distinction, Mathematics (Graduate Preparation Track) - Distinguished Major Program, Advisor: Thomas Koberda.
- Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction, Computer Science - Distinguished Major Program, Advisor: Wei-Kai Lin.
- Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science: 2025.8-2026.12 (expected).
- Master of Science, Computer Science - MSCS thesis track.
Contact
- Email
- CMU Related: liranl@andrew.cmu.edu / @cs.cmu.edu.
- UVA Related: zqj6pe@virginia.edu.
news
| May 17, 2025 | I’ve officially graduated from the University of Virginia, and I can call myself a UVA alumnus! |
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| May 12, 2025 | My undergraduate Distinguished Major Thesis in Mathematics, Automatic Groups: A Brief Introduction, has been officially archived by the UVA Library! You can find it here. |
| May 09, 2025 | I received a notification from the CS Department at UVA that I will be graduating with high distinction! |
| Apr 30, 2025 | I passed my defense for my undergraduate Distinguished Major Thesis in Mathematics, Automatic Groups: A Brief Introduction, today! Thank you, Professor Koberda, for your mentorship over the past four years, and thank you to Professor Ershov and Professor Maloni for serving on my thesis committee! |
| Apr 05, 2025 | I accepted the offer from CMU’s MSCS program. See you in Pittsburgh next fall! |