Fang Song is an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Portland State University and the recipient of the 2024 Early Career Research Award.
Prior to joining Portland State, Fang Song was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University in 2013, and received his bachelor’s degree from University of Science & Technology of China in 2008.
Fang Song conducts research on the intersection of cryptography, quantum computing and theoretical computer science. One major contribution has been developing rigorous methods to safeguard cybersecurity systems against attacks enabled by quantum computing capability, which impact industry and government policy making. His recent line of work on quantum pseudorandomness opens up new possibilities in quantum cryptography and suggests alternative explanations to black-hole and quantum gravity. Several of his works have been selected as long plenary talks at the prestigious Conference on Quantum Information Processing. His research has been funded by multiple NSF grants (including an NSF Early Career award in 2020), and a SONY Faculty Innovation Award.
Andrew Tolmach, a Professor of Computer Science and colleague of Song, says: "Within our department, Professor Song has played a pivotal role in strengthening theoretical computer science, which he sees both as essential to the long-term success of his own research program and as an opportunity to increase diversity in our community. ...He has developed new or substantially revised course offerings in theoretical subjects, including algorithms, computation theory, cryptography, and quantum computing [and] worked to strengthen and broaden his research community by collaborating with top-quality researchers from around the world, including mathematicians and physicists as well as computer scientists."