Current Position & Biography
Arthur Gervais is Professor of Information Security in University College London’s Department of Computer Science. His research spans AI-assisted security, blockchain vulnerabilities and decentralized-finance protocols. His teaching includes DeFi and research in information security, alongside contributions to cryptocurrency teaching. His personal website links to openly accessible lectures and the DeFi MOOC, whose Fall 2022 instructor roster includes him alongside researchers from Stanford, Illinois and Berkeley.
Notable Contributions
With Kaihua Qin and Liyi Zhou, Gervais coauthored Quantifying Blockchain Extractable Value: How dark is the forest? The paper examined value extraction through activities including sandwich attacks, liquidations and decentralized-exchange arbitrage, and analyzed the security implications of transaction-relay arrangements. Its historical data and protocol assumptions matter: findings about that setting should not be presented as a current measurement of all blockchain networks.
Why Katharos.ai Is Following Them
Katharos.ai follows Gervais at the intersection of financial incentives and software security. DeFi risk is not limited to whether a single smart contract contains a programming error. Transaction ordering and interactions between protocols can also shape who gains value and who absorbs losses. His research provides a basis for asking how technical design choices affect users, while his teaching helps make those questions accessible beyond specialist security teams.
Areas to Follow
AI-assisted vulnerability analysis, smart-contract security, transaction ordering, extractable value and DeFi education. Coverage will distinguish experimental security tools from deployed protections, and publication findings from claims made by commercial projects. A proposed mitigation deserves scrutiny of its assumptions and operational trade-offs, not an automatic label of safety.
Reporting Scope
United Kingdom identifies Gervais’s current UCL professional base, rather than citizenship. This profile concerns public research and educational work; it does not treat academic affiliation as approval of a particular financial service, token or security product. Research can illuminate failure modes without establishing that a system is suitable for every user.
Sources for Further Reading
https://arthurgervais.com/ https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/91743-arthur-gervais/teaching https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.05511 https://defi-learning.org/f22
Photo Credit
Arthur Gervais portrait via the DeFi MOOC instructor page. Photographer not identified by the source or embedded metadata. Original metadata retained; neutral 16:9 padding without cropping or facial alteration.
Editorial Disclaimer
This profile summarizes information from the cited sources. Katharos.ai does not endorse the subject or guarantee every source claim’s authenticity.