This is the home page of Zach Smith.

Currently I work as a Security Architect for Zortify, an AI/NLP startup in Luxembourg. Usually, my work involves understanding the technical infrastructure in place at an organisation. From there, we implement technical or policy improvements, or deploy new solutions to harden security. I love this work because it involves maintaining a big-picture view while also getting to muck around in the swamps of complex systems. I also assist with establishing technical agreements – research partnerships, contracts with high performance computing institutes, and so on.

Before this, I completed my PhD at the University of Luxembourg. My research focused on the application of Formal Methods to cybersecurity. By creating mathematical models of real-world communication protocols (such as RFID or Internet messaging), we can analyse their security. I’m originally a mathematician by study, and successfully fulfilled the pure-math meme of justifying my work with “it has applications in cryptography”. More on research.

I have taken part in several programming projects in the past, some of which ended up being quite successful. I’m a big fan of game design as a way for honing my programming - you get to wear many hats, pick up artistic skills and have fun with the result! I mostly work in modifying or extending existing games - either by using supported modding tools or using more creative methods. These days in what spare time I have I work with a friend developing a game in Unreal… but it’ll be a while before there’s anything worth showing. More on programming.

I am trying my best to write things about the other things that fill my life. I think we are at our most interesting when we have a diverse set of hobbies – I dance swing, speak Chinese, and play a card game with people I met in a boardgames design group in my late teens with a dozen active players. You can see it in the blog.

If you want to contact me, you can email me using zach (at) (this website).