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Vũ Quang Đào (Quang Dao)

PhD Student in Cryptography at CMU; IMO 2016 silver medalist for Vietnam
Carnegie Mellon University · Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States · academic
LinkedIn · GitHub · quangvdao.github.io
IMO 2016 Silver Medalist Representing Vietnam (rank 63/602, 27 Pts)Founder And Co-lead Of ArkLib, A Lean Library For Formally Verified SNARKsCo-lead Developer Of VCVio And PolyFun; Main Contributor To A16z's Jolt zkVMPhD In Cryptography At CMU Advised By Aayush Jain And Riad WahbyQuad Fellowship, CyLab Presidential Fellowship, And Ethereum Foundation Grant Support

Quang Dao (Vũ Quang Đào) is a PhD student in cryptography at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Aayush Jain and Riad Wahby, and a part-time researcher at LayerZero. He won a silver medal representing Vietnam at the 2016 International Mathematical Olympiad. His research focuses on the design, formal verification, and performance optimization of succinct zero-knowledge proofs (SNARKs).

Quang Dao is a fifth-year PhD student at CMU working on SNARKs and formally verified cryptography in Lean (ArkLib, VCVio, PolyFun), and a main contributor to the a16z Jolt zkVM. He earned an MA in Math at Michigan with Paul Grubbs and a BA in Math and CS at Columbia. He was a silver medalist at IMO 2016 for Vietnam.

LinkedIn followers354
Details
LocationPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Company sitecmu.edu
UniversityCarnegie Mellon University
CryptographyZero-knowledge proofs (SNARKs)Formal verification in LeanPost-quantum cryptographyProver-algorithm performance optimizationCode-based cryptography
Notes
  • Fifth-year CMU PhD plus part-time researcher at LayerZero (from 2026-01) suggests an industry-facing zk-infrastructure trajectory rather than a purely academic one.Jan 2026
  • Built ArkLib/VCVio/PolyFun Lean libraries for machine-checked SNARK proofs and won Ethereum Foundation grants to formalize them - a bet that formally verified cryptography becomes standard in the zk ecosystem.2025
  • Won silver at IMO 2016 for Vietnam at ~18, then started at Columbia the same year - the olympiad result is the on-ramp to a research math/CS career, not a one-off.Jul 2016
  • Progression Columbia (BA Math+CS) -> Michigan (MA Math, Paul Grubbs) -> CMU PhD cryptography is a drift from pure math into applied proof systems, matching the zk field's demand for proof-system engineers.2022

Competition record

Vietnam · IMO

2016 · Silver · Rank 63