Samira Carolina Oliva Madrigal

God. His direct love and through others, has taken me to where I am today. I always sanctify my studies and work. Wonderful outcomes have been the result of walking the narrow path, my sacrifices, and those of my loved ones. I'm the type of person who would stay up all night to submit a detailed lab report and continue during the day as normal with a few cups of coffee. I'm the type of person who would be so engrossed solving a math problem (triple integral or very particular problems) that I would miss the train stop, I would be so engrossed I blocked out all the outside noise. I would stay up until 3am or later, get a few hours of sleep, and continue reviewing on way to an examination--I would try to nail everything. An obsessive nature for details and a love to study everything in depth from first principles. I have always had a genuine interest in mathematics and quantum computing, since I was a high school student. I was drawn to field theory though at the time I had no idea it is the language of cryptology and that some day I would be studying how qubits work and the fundamental quantum algorithms. If we look at where we are today, we are at the intersection of emerging technology where cryptology meets artificial intelligence and the prospectives of quantum computing.

I would never be where I am without the prayers and support of my loved ones. I consider myself incredibly blessed, fortunate, and privileged to have been mentored by one of the most prominent authorities in the cryptology, Dr. and Professor Çetin Kaya Koç. I came to know him in late 2021, after having received some of the worst blows life can give. Within a month of my master degree, I had witnessed my father, the man who sacrificed everything so that I could be someone in this world, injured and covered in blood, his bones broken and several injuries after being stricken in a wrong way fatal car accident, followed by other tragedies. At the time, I was preparing my first publication and I needed an expert to review it. It was later published to the most suitable journal, the International Workshop on the Arithmetic of Finite Fields (WAIFI 2022). Dr. Koç was instrumental in my development for scientific research and advanced cryptography. From the years I worked with him as a collaborator and informally as one of his students, I refined my intellectual prowess for scientific research and development in such a way that by far surpassed doctoral studies.

Together with Dr. Haluk Özemek and PhD student Chen Li, Dr. Koç consider me brilliant and proposed a 2 year PhD with Villanova University. The entrance was disturbed by significant external friction and persistent professional opposition from competing factions, which together with other significant and personal objectives, led me to consider an opportunities abroad such as, Télécom Paris I2C lab, located within the epicenter of mathematical and cryptographic excellence. However, within two months of being there, even the thesis advisors acknowledged that I knew more than them and surpassed them by much in theory and implementation. Moreover, I was isolated under the pretense of independent research; there was no iron to sharpen me and no meaningful collaborations. When I was there, I meant business--real work. I moved quite fast and this made the advisors fearful such that they exhibited retaliatory actions like opposing an already funded travel to Norway for the geometry of polynomials which has direct applications to advanced cryptography areas of my work. This was a big red flag. After the advisors trying to steal my research findings, it was the point of no return. I did not see the point to continue there for independent research as I was already established with leading works in finite field arithmetic, post-quantum cryptography, and homomorphic encryption. It was only a confirmation that I had already surpassed by far that level of study and spending 3-5 years with folks I directed would be total waste of time. In fact, I had declined prior earlier propositions for fully funded PhDs years back for the same reasons. Sometimes, folks can be so insistent, they make us consider something we had already declined. In this case, within two months I was ready to head back home had it not been for a major misinformation and manipulation on repercussions for abroad travel with French permit in progress. I am happy to share that I am prime candidate for an honorary PhD which is the most prestigious doctoral degree a university can grant. A lot of people with PhD cannot accomplish the level of work others contribute to the field, such as James Blunt in music. Research is research. If you have exceptionally mastery of the fundamentals of the language in your field, fundamentals and advanced works, research becomes really easy. You figure out how the different ways to contribute with respect to innovation and efficiency. For some techniques, it just becomes turning the churn. Specially if you are a fast reader and learner, you may find yourself quite happy. If you add AI deep research and AI tools, it becomes incredibly accelerated. Instead of a doctoral thesis, I can put forth a book and several more interesting publications. This is why I decided to return home and continue building my company as well as allow myself other opportunities--I continued work with my former collaborators and explored dual tracks

Believe in yourself. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. To achieve anything, you have to believe in yourself. B.E.L.I.E.V.E.

MINDSET is paramount. If you believe, everything flows and more than half the work is already done.

Fight for your dreams.

My father always advised me to study and to be independent. He said I should never depend on anyone to move forwards.

Follow your heart and have the courage to fight for what you really want. When the goals are clearly discerned and upright almost always there will be opposition. Don't let anyone dictate your path. Don't let anyone try to impose on you something that is not for you. Often times, one of the things I have observed in industry and academia, are a lot of unhappy people involved in forced relationships and forcing themselves into a career because they think it's cool or they think they can make a quick fortune and then continue masquerading elsewhere. I want to say, such people eventually get caught. Ignore all the insecure people who try to put you down. You will never hear verbal attacks or gossip from someone with genuine self-confidence. You will never hear comments or gossip like "You're too skinny!!", "You're not that smart" , "She's too thin" or "She tries to call attention to herself", "You can't do that!!" from someone like Gisele Bündchen or Albert Einstein. Such comments will always come from people who rot at the fruit of your sacrifice and have become such empty shells, they literally wish they could be you... and will often perceive your capacity leaves them in the dust, they immediately see you as their competition and see in you an exceeding out of proportion of what lacks in them. In rare cases it may be people younger than you, and often people more than double your age, or people a few decades older than you who compare to you. They don't just envy you and wish they could destroy you, but they wish they could be you. When someone envies what you have, they don't just want what you have, they also want you to lose it... something to reflect deeply on. Usually these people just cover the blessings of others but don't want to work for it.. they are indeed parasitic. DON'T LET ANYONE STEAL WHAT YOU WORKED FOR. DON'T LET ANYONE UNDERMINE WHAT SPENT YEARS TO BUILD.

Your sheer existence and the good you do, exposes their permanent brokenness and seared conscience. I once had someone say to me "You don't have a belly because you don't eat" and my answer was "I don't have a belly because I eat healthy, I workout, I am always proactive, and I do real charity without making noise. I have the vitals of an elite athlete." When people feel inferior to you, they will always try to attack your image. Usually attacks against people, notably women in STEM type career, more than often come from failed and resented folks that are actually opportunist or fortune hunters.

Beware of your environments, including outside of work. Don't allow anyone to drain you. Whenever you start observing toxicity, you suspect hidden agendas, folks needy for attention seeking praise and glory, people who need to harm others to feel like they are worth something, people wanting to be physically close to you literally just to try to monitor you (typically opportunist and impersonators) or places where you see people dragging the feet, showing up to an office just to be seen, literally impostors, or where people outright acknowledge their incompetence and mediocrity, PLEASE REMOVE YOURSELF FROM SUCH ENVIRONMENTS!! THESE ARE RED FLAGS. When you detect you are surrounded by envy and hostility, I strongly suggest you remove yourself from such environments to protect you peace and well being.

Not only do such places drain your energy, they can actually become quite dangerous. Direct confrontation is not always the best. Usually such folks end up running into others that are much worse than them, so you don't really have to lift a single finger. Sadly, from the very particular experiences I have had in industry, the academic world, and other institutions, I have had ample opportunity to observe the really bright side as well as the really dark side. Some places can be be wonderful and become plagued just with one bad apple that joins. So always beware. PRUDENCE goes a long way.

My advice, is to exercise extreme caution and surround yourself with folks that support your path and elevate you, people that actually want to see you succeed, support you, and help you. Those who can acknowledge your brilliance and rejoice at your success will always be folks with unshakable self confidence, privileged intelligence in their metier, and those that possess genuine happiness. Identify the lizards that cannot help but just drag themselves on the ground and connect with those that can reach great heights with you.

Always take time to reflect and keep your guard up. When you set out to do what you love, you often are engrossed in the work itself... literally you will be consumed because you love what you do so much, the hours will just fly by. You will publish and keep going. HOWEVER, there will always be other people just watching you and monitoring your progress and working to try to undermine you. There will be people with so much insecurity that will feel threatened just by your presence, your authentic self-expression, and your sheer essence. So beware!!!!

Usually people that have self confidence will focus on their garden. When you are someone who works with what you have and you never compare yourself to others, it may be easy to overlook frustrated individuals just about everywhere who do the opposite. I feel obliged to state this because oftentimes folks with a pure heart will totally overlook this. People, even those who don't know you, can become so enraged with envy over your accomplishments and well being to the point of going out of their way to cause you harm or trying to steal your blessings. It is important to always be aware of your surroundings, exercise caution with your interactions, and be alert.

One advice I always give is: you cannot be careful enough. Trust your gut feeling. When something doesn't feel right it usually isn't. Learn to read people and their true intentions. Self-care and out performing other colleagues was an immediate reason for creating enemies... It's quite proper to acknowledge that we live in a very broken world. This is why I strongly advice to surround yourself with people that elevate you and beware of those actively seeking your destruction.

Be discrete within reason. Specially when you are working on very sensitive work, always exercise the highest level of discretion and caution!!

Always give back to the community. With great power comes great responsibility. I strongly strongly encourage involvement in charity. Go beyond what everyone does (volunteering left and right at their work place) and make real contributions to those that are often forgotten by society, those living at the margins. Reach out to places where no one cares to help. Get out of your comfort zone. Mentor someone. Help someone whose only source of help would be you!!! Make a difference in silence without seeking audiences or rewards in front of an assembly.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyways: HUMILITY. The most beautiful minds and individuals with exceptional capacity are always endowed with such a profound humility. Real humility is a characteristic of wonderful individuals.

Exercise a fine balance as always. Take care of your health and be reasonable. I always suggest, listen to your body. Please don't listen to someone asking you to run a marathon without proper training. Don't hurt yourself over wrong advice. Don't let anyone talk you into things that would harm you. I speak from what I have observed in others. I've seen folks getting their knees ruined with overheating problems because they took ill advise. Often times young people are so desperate to "fit in" and "be liked by others" and oftentimes overshare information. PLEASE DON'T SEEK VALIDATION FROM OTHERS. THAT IS THE WORST THING YOU COULD EVER POSSIBLY DO. Listen to your inner voice. Never do anything trying to please other people. Stand your ground when needed. Never allow yourself to be someone's puppet or get tossed by the wind. You should have clear discernment of your objectives and the characters to drive strongly.

NEVER second guess yourself. When something comes with confusion, it is not for you. What's meant for you always arrives in total clarity.

Always exercise the highest level of integrity and never let anyone try to steal your work. Young people can be so naive. In scientific research, never share your findings with others working on similar areas or with advisors, unless they have been deemed trustworthy and you replicated and published the content to at least 2 trusted parties and elsewhere.

NEVER settle for less. NEVER lower your standards. NEVER tolerate disrespect. Be brave and have the courage to lead!

To be the best version of yourself, you have to focus on your particular path and work with what is given to you. NEVER EVER EVER COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHERS. THIS IS SHEER ABSURDITY but it is a problem I have observed in others. That is one of the worst things you could ever do. If you want to make the best version of yourself flourish to the fullest, never compare to others and never covet what belongs to others. Always remember that what truly belongs to you always finds you when the time is right and cannot be taken.

Always keep going forward. When the going gets tough, keep going. You really have to love what you do to overcome unexpected obstacles. Realization is not always linear.

One of the biggest challenges, specially for young talented women, will be the envy of male colleagues and people in general. This often stems from stereotypes and the inability of others to acknowledge the fact that people are gifted in different ways and that no one is truly better than anyone else. Distorted misconceptions and the inability of some people to see the beauty and gifts in themselves leads them to an emptiness that constantly covets what belongs to others and an unhealthy desire to try to usurp the identities of other individuals because they feel they have none.

Authenticity, integrity, morality, nobility, and self-confidence. I value a lot folks that are authentic and whose intentions are truly upright and that have a generous heart. I love individuals who exhibit a high level of altruism and philanthropy. People that volunteer and help at places and organizations OUTSIDE their workplace without tooting their horn for attention or creating major conflicts of interests.

The best collaborators I have had are always folks that know their worth and have strong self-confidence. These are also folks that exhibit a high degree of integrity and ethics. I value people that have the courage to pursue their true happiness without imposing injustice to others. Those I admire the most are individuals like Chungwu Ho (Professor Emeritus of Mathematics) whom I learned Linear Algebra and Differential Equations from and was also given his Handbook of Physics during the same time I was taking two calculus-based Physics (Optics and Waves and Particle Physics), Grigori Perelman, and extreme artists like Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus. They are examples of people that possess genuine happiness. In a world where folks often take paths seeking power, money, and vain glory, out of selfish ambition, they are prime examples that true greatness and genuine happiness takes place in a the quiet stillness or radical environments powered by true character, determination, and an authentic pursuit of happiness. Not seeking praise or fame, but simply doing what is in your heart.

It is takes incredibly noble, competent, and secure individuals to want to see and help others succeed. Someone who is willing to make sacrifices to help you succeed. Someone who is able to help you and truly wants to see you succeed.