[cshep]

I have the fortune of working in a security group who's members are recognised themselves and have worked with Bernstein, Rogaway et al.

From my experience, too many cryptographers lack the applied skills (API design, knowing the issues faced by developers, designing and implementing performant crypto primitives). Conversely, too many applied folk lack the crypto experience: knowing the state-of-the-art of elliptic curves, MPC, lattices and so forth.

Bernstein has the experience to bridge both, which provides an enormous advantage. JHU's Matthew Green is someone else who's does both.