How It Works
HYBRID FORMAT
The fellowship begins remotely in the fall, with a kickoff call with your mentor. Throughout the year, we will host events around upcoming research conferences.
The fellowship begins remotely in the fall, with a kickoff call with your mentor. Throughout the year, we will host events around upcoming research conferences.
FELLOWSHIP KICKOFF
During the first month, you will have a kick off call with your mentor, where you will set the frequency of your meetings and how you will use your time. By the end of this month you should have a clear plan to work towards for the duration of your Fellowship.
During the first month, you will have a kick off call with your mentor, where you will set the frequency of your meetings and how you will use your time. By the end of this month you should have a clear plan to work towards for the duration of your Fellowship.
DELIVERABLES
Deliverables at the end of the program: Either a paper or open github repo if work is ongoing, a talk at the Inaugural TLDR Conference in May 2024, a blog post that explains your work.
Deliverables at the end of the program: Either a paper or open github repo if work is ongoing, a talk at the Inaugural TLDR Conference in May 2024, a blog post that explains your work.
Fellowship Benefits
Salary
You’ll receive a $10,000-$25,000 stipend for the duration of your fellowship, giving you time to focus on your DeFi research.
Support
You will have access to a dedicated mentor who has domain expertise in the topic you’re writing on.
Network
You’ll have the opportunity to meet the cohort of fellows and council at events. In addition, you will present your research at the TLDR Conference in 2025.
Meet The Mentors
Selected for their expertise and contributions in the field, our three mentors are at the forefront of driving innovation alongside our TLDR fellows.
Market Microstructure for MEV, Blockchain Mechanism Design
CFMMs, MEV, Censorship Resistance
MEV supply network, Censorship Resistance, Protocol Mechanism Design, CL and EL data
Meet the Fellows
Out of 187 applicants, these 18 researchers were selected by the Research Council for the 2024-2025 TLDR Fellowship.
Adam Bouabda
Dynamic CFFMs
Master’s student in Mathematics at ETH Zurich
Alexander Herrmann
MEV Resistant L2 Sequencers
Math Master of Science Leibniz University
Andrew Macpherson
Blockspace Futures
Founder, Shtuka Research
Benjamin Kraner
Understanding Risk in Restaking
PhD student at the UZH Blockchain Center
Bruno Mazorra
Sybil Proofness and Collusion Resistance
Master of Science in Mathematics through the ALGANT program
Christof Ferreira Torres
All About MEV & PBS
Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), University of Lisbon
Diego Estevez
MEV Resistant L2 Sequencers
Researcher and protocol engineer
Fei Wu
All About MEV & PBS
CS PhD at King’s College London
Koshi Ota
Comparing DeFi Trading Platforms
Econ BA at Keio
Marco Francischello
Understanding Risk in Restaking
Researcher at Scuola Normale Superiore
Mengqian Zhang
Novel Designs for Decentralized Markets
Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University
Michele Fabi
Novel Designs for Decentralized Markets
Assistant Professor at Telecom Paris, CREST, IP Paris.
Miha Lotric
Comparing DeFi Trading Platforms
DeFi RnD
Sina Pilehchiha
Identifying ZKP Pricing Factors & Auction Mechanisms
Security Researcher at Scroll
Stefanos Chaliasos
Identifying ZKP Pricing Factors & Auction Mechanisms
CS PhD at Imperial College London and Security Researcher at zkSecurity
Vedartham Bharath
Blockspace Futures
Engineer at Astria Labs
Yiyun Zheng
Sybil Proofness and Collusion Resistance
Econ PhD at École Polytechnique/ENSAE
Yuki Yuminaga
Comparing DeFi Trading Platforms
Founding Research & Growth at Sorella Labs / Research Partner at Fenbushi Capital
Meet the Research Council
John Adler
Director of Protocol Engineering
blockchain protocol design, incentive structures, resource pricing
Guillermo Angeris
Head of research at Bain Capital Crypto
OPTIMIZATION, CFMMS, PROBABILITY
Tarun Chitra
Gauntlet, Robot Ventures
CONVEX OPTIMIZATION, CFMMS, MEV, AUCTIONS, SPIN GLASSES
Theo Diamandis
PhD student at MIT and researcher at Bain Capital Crypto
OPTIMIZATION, CONVEX ANALYSIS, MEV, CFMMS
Matheus Venturyne Xavier Ferreira
Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow
AI, ALGORITHMIC ECONOMICS AND SECURITY
Pranav Garimidi
a16z Crypto Research
MEV, Auction Design, Fee Mechanisms, Algorithmic Game Theory
Assimakis Kattis (Aki)
New York University
ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOF DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT, CONSENSUS PROTOCOLS AND ZKP MECHANISM DESIGN
Kshitij Kulkarni
UC Berkeley / Gauntlet
Mechanism design, game theory, optimization
Mallesh Pai
Associate Professor, Rice University and Principal Researcher, Consensys Inc
Market Microstructure for MEV, Blockchain Mechanism Design
Raffi Sapire
Uniswap Foundation
MEV + Oracle research implemented as hooks on Uniswap v4, Flashloan/sandwich auctions, Routers, Incentive Design
John Adler
Director of Protocol Engineering
blockchain protocol design, incentive structures, resource pricing
Sarah Allen
Flashbots, IC3
Governance, DAOs, voting schemes, decentralized identity, all things MEV, and empirical studies and attacks for any of the above
Guillermo Angeris
Head of research at Bain Capital Crypto
OPTIMIZATION, CFMMS, PROBABILITY
Tarun Chitra
Gauntlet, Robot Ventures
CONVEX OPTIMIZATION, CFMMS, MEV, AUCTIONS, SPIN GLASSES
Theo Diamandis
PhD student at MIT and researcher at Bain Capital Crypto
OPTIMIZATION, CONVEX ANALYSIS, MEV, CFMMS
Matheus Venturyne Xavier Ferreira
Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow
AI, ALGORITHMIC ECONOMICS AND SECURITY
Pranav Garimidi
a16z Crypto Research
MEV, Auction Design, Fee Mechanisms, Algorithmic Game Theory
Assimakis Kattis (Aki)
New York University
ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOF DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT, CONSENSUS PROTOCOLS AND ZKP MECHANISM DESIGN
Ariah Klages-Mundt
Superluminal Labs
Design and analysis of DeFi mechanisms (including stablecoins, AMMs, oracles, governance systems), modeling economic security, modeling risk and contagion in DeFi protocols
Kshitij Kulkarni
UC Berkeley / Gauntlet
Mechanism design, game theory, optimization
Jason Milionis
Columbia University
decentralized mechanism design, game dynamics, auction design, algorithmic game theory
Mallesh Pai
Associate Professor, Rice University and Principal Researcher, Consensys Inc
MEV Auctions, new defi implementations
Raphaela Sapire
Uniswap Foundation
MEV + Oracle research implemented as hooks on Uniswap v4, Flashloan/sandwich auctions, Routers, Incentive Design
2024-2025 Problem Spaces
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Past Fellows
After reviewing 107 applicants, 9 outstanding researchers were selected for the first round of TLDR fellowships.
Andrés Fábrega
GOVERNANCE DECENTRALIZATION GAME THEORY
Cornell University
Burak Öz
BLOCK BIDDING ECOMONICS ON MEV-BOOST
Technical University of Munich
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Ghada Almashaqbeh
AMMBOOST: STATE GROWTH CONTROL FOR AMMS
University of Connecticut
Itamar Reif
ZK FEE MECHANISM DESIGN
Astria
Kaihua Qin
IMPLEMENTATION OF DEFI MECHANISMS
Imperial College London
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Lily Johnson
IMPLEMENTATION OF DEFI MECHANISMS
Independent Security Researcher
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Mohammadreza Ahmadnejadsaein
GOVERNANCE DECENTRALIZATION GAME THEORY
Cornell University
Ruizhe Jia
BLOCK BIDDING ECOMONICS ON MEV-BOOST
Columbia University
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Yotam Gafni
IMPROVED MEV AUCTIONS
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Sponsored By
The Uniswap Foundation has committed up to $3,000,000 over the next 3 years to DeFi Research.