The need for a forum devoted to the presentation of works in the Theory of Cryptography was first noted in the early 1990's. Early attempts to partially meet the need led to the establishing of the Theory of Cryptography Library (by Oded Goldreich in 1996). The effort involved in running a conference deterred an attempt to establish TCC till 2002, when the idea was put forward by Mihir Bellare. A steering committee was soon formed, and it decided to hold the 1st TCC in February 2004.
Time: February 19-21, 2004 Location: MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA General chair: Shafi Goldwasser Program chair: Moni Naor Proceedings: Springer, LNCS 2951 | The 1st TCC was a great success. The scientific program was of good quality (at least as good as the average CRYPTO/EuroCrypt quality), the attendance was beyond our expectations (with approximately 100 registered), and the atmosphere was full of excitement and energy. |
It seems that the a priori feeling that this conference is needed turned out to be a big understatement: the submissions and the attendance (with many traveling from the West Coast, Europe and even Japan) speak for themselves. Indeed, if TCC had not existed then most of the works presented in it would have been "lost" (i.e., would have not appeared in any conference).
Time: February 10-12, 2005 Location: MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA General chair: Shafi Goldwasser Program chair: Joe Kilian Proceedings: Springer, LNCS 3378 | The 2nd TCC re-located in MIT, and re-iterated the success of the 1st TCC. The program and attendance maintained their previous level (with approximately 125 registered participants). The conference was held in the new architecturally fascinating Stata Center. |
Starting with the 3rd TCC, the conference has been sponsored by IACR.
Time: March 4-7, 2006 Location: Columbia U., NYC, NY, USA General chair: Shai Halevi and Tal Rabin Program chair: Shai Halevi and Tal Rabin Proceedings: Springer, LNCS 3876 | The 3rd TCC took place in NYC, and the feeling was that the conference has consolidated. |
Time: February 21-24, 2007 Location: KNAW, Amsterdam, NL General chair: Ronald Cramer Program chair: Salil Vadhan Proceedings: Springer, LNCS 4392 | Attendence seems to be growing (over 140 this time) and a location in Europe seems not to harm it. Needless to say, it was fun being in charming Amsterdam. |
See also the steering committee.