Stories

Kevin Dyer, Santa Clara University class of 2006, double majored in Computer Science and Mathematics. During his Junior year at SCU he spent one semester abroad at Mzuzu University in Malawi, Africa. While in Mzuzu he met his future wife, Susannah --- a British medical student and aid worker.

After graduating from SCU he followed Susannah to England and attended Royal Holloway in London for a Master’s degree in the Mathematics of Cryptography. This lead to a Software Engineering position in London working on data security for television networks.

However, Kevin wanted more. Inspired by the cryptography research he did as an undergraduate at SCU, he left his Software Engineering position in 2010 for a PhD program in Cryptography at Portland State University. During his PhD, Kevin studied how governments, like Iran and China, use technology to censor and block the Internet. In response, he developed novel cryptography that helps citizens in oppressive countries circumvent such censorship. His research has received international recognition, including a $100k surprise gift from Eric Schmidt, and has been deployed to millions of users worldwide.

After completing his PhD in 2015, Kevin joined Google in California as a Software Engineer specializing in network and data security.