Isabelle Déchène, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University:

Generalized Jacobians in Cryptography

Dr. Déchène wrote her thesis, Generalized Jacobians in Cryptography, at McGill University where she had two supervisors: Henri Darmon and Claude Crépeau.  Her thesis is a deep and broad application of algebraic groups over finite fields.

She applied these methods to a study of the discrete logarithm problem (DLP), which provides the mathematical underpinnings of public-key cryptosystems.

Dr. Déchène developed the novel unification of all common
DLP-based cryptosystems using generalized Jacobians. She was also able to introduce a new public-key cryptosystem based on these ideas.

Isabelle's thesis was not only a mathematical tour de force with significant practical applications,  it was also exceptionally well written.