The Professor's List · A Note of Recognition

Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What is this?

The Professor’s List is a personal recognition I issue to students who showed up — not just attended, but joined the room, worked through the frustrating parts, and completed an original project from scratch. Each certificate is a note from me as an individual, not a UNI credential.

Every certificate is cryptographically signed with my Ed25519 private key and verified in your browser against my public key. Anyone can confirm that a certificate is authentic, unaltered, and issued by me — without trusting any third party.

How verification works

Each certificate carries a unique reference ID (like MHO-5F6A). When you visit the verification page, your browser:

Fetches the signed certificate JSON from this site
Fetches my public key from /.well-known/chen-pubkey.txt
Recomputes the canonical form of the certificate and checks the Ed25519 signature
Shows a green ✓ Verified badge if the signature matches, or a red ⚠ Tampered warning if not

This means you can verify the certificate entirely offline — download the JSON and the public key, and run the same check with any Ed25519 library.

What this is not

This is not a UNI transcript entry, grade modifier, or institutional credential. It does not replace or supplement any record issued by the University of Northern Iowa. It is a personal gesture — something to keep if it means something to you.

Recognition | Robin Chen

The Professor's List · A Note of Recognition

What is this?

How verification works

What this is not