Nicholas Spooner

Nicholas Spooner is an assistant professor of computer science at Cornell University and a member of the Theory of Computing group. His work focuses on post-quantum proof systems. His interests include probabilistic proof systems and zero knowledge in general, post-quantum cryptography, quantum information, coding theory, and computational complexity. 

Spooner was an assistant professor at the University of Warwick until 2024, and a visiting assistant professor at New York University for the 2023-24 academic year. Before that, he was a postdoc at Boston University, hosted by Ran Canetti. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was advised by Alessandro Chiesa. He holds a master's degree in theoretical computer science from ETH Zürich and a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge. In 2025, Spooner was a Simons-Berkeley Research Fellow.