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Martin Hellman

 
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Martin Edward Hellman (born October 2, 1945) is a cryptologist, famous for his invention of public key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie
Whitfield Diffie

Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is a United States cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography.He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965....
 and Ralph Merkle
Ralph Merkle

Ralph C. Merkle is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics. Merkle appears in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age, as one of the heroes of the world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous....
.

Martin and Whitfield Diffie
Whitfield Diffie

Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is a United States cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography.He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965....
's paper New Directions in Cryptography was published in 1976. It introduced a radically new method of distributing cryptographic
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
 keys, which went far toward solving one of the fundamental problems of cryptography, key distribution.






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Martin Hellman
Martin Edward Hellman (born October 2, 1945) is a cryptologist, famous for his invention of public key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie
Whitfield Diffie

Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is a United States cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography.He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965....
 and Ralph Merkle
Ralph Merkle

Ralph C. Merkle is a pioneer in public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics. Merkle appears in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age, as one of the heroes of the world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous....
.

Martin and Whitfield Diffie
Whitfield Diffie

Bailey Whitfield 'Whit' Diffie is a United States cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography.He received a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965....
's paper New Directions in Cryptography was published in 1976. It introduced a radically new method of distributing cryptographic
Cryptography

Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. In modern times cryptography is considered a branch of both mathematics and computer science and is affiliated closely with information theory, computer security and engineering....
 keys, which went far toward solving one of the fundamental problems of cryptography, key distribution. It has become known as Diffie-Hellman key exchange
Diffie-Hellman key exchange

Diffie-Hellman key exchange is a cryptographic protocol that allows two parties that have no prior knowledge of each other to jointly establish a shared secret key over an insecure communications channel....
. The article also seems to have stimulated the almost immediate public development of a new class of encryption algorithms, the asymmetric key algorithms.

Hellman graduated from the Bronx High School of Science
Bronx High School of Science

The Bronx High School of Science is a Specialized High Schools of New York City New York City public high school. Founded in 1938, it is currently located in the Bedford Park, Bronx, New York section of the Bronx....
. He went on to earn his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years....
 from New York University
New York University

New York University is a private university, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan....
 in 1966, and at Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
 he earned a Master's degree
Master's degree

A master's degree provides a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of profession. Within the area studied, graduates possess advanced knowledge of a specialized body of theory and applied topics; high order skills in analysis, Critical thinking and/or professional application; and the ability to problem solving a...
 in 1967 and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. or PhD for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", is an postgraduate academic degree awarded by University....
 in 1969, all in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism....
.

From 1968–1969 he worked at IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
's Watson Research Center where he encountered Horst Feistel
Horst Feistel

Horst Feistel was a cryptographer who worked on the design of ciphers at IBM, initiating research that would culminate in the development of the Data Encryption Standard in the 1970s....
. From 1969–1971 he was an assistant professor at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private university research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States....
. He joined Stanford in 1971 as a professor, serving until 1996 when he became Professor Emeritus.

Martin and Whitfield Diffie were awarded the Marconi Fellowship and accompanying prize in 2000 for work on public-key cryptography and for helping make cryptography a legitimate area of academic research.

External links

  • Oral history interview by Jeffrey R. Yost, 22 November 2004, Palo Alto, California. Charles Babbage Institute
    Charles Babbage Institute

    The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
     University of Minnesota, Minneapolis