Roger Needham
Encyclopedia
Roger Michael Needham, CBE, FRS, FREng (9 February 1935 – 1 March 2003) was a British
computer scientist
.
(then in the West Riding
).
Needham began his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge
in 1953, graduating with a B.A. in 1956 in mathematics and philosophy. His Ph.D.
thesis was on applications of digital computer
s to the automatic classification and retrieval of documents. He worked on a variety of key computing projects in security
, operating systems, computer architecture
(capability systems) and local area network
s.
for authentication
, generally known as the BAN logic. His Needham-Schroeder (coinvented with Michael Schroeder
) security protocol forms the basis of the Kerberos authentication
and key exchange
system. He also codesigned the TEA
and XTEA
encryption algorithms.
He joined Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, then called the Mathematical Laboratory, in 1962, became head of the laboratory in 1980, was made a professor
in 1981 and remained with the laboratory until his retirement in 1995. Needham then set up Microsoft
's UK-based Research Laboratory
in 1997. He was also one of the founding Fellow
s of University College
, Cambridge
, which became Wolfson College
.
Needham was elected to the Royal Society
in 1985, became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
in 1993 and received a CBE for his contributions to computing
in 2001. He also was a longtime and respected member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
, the IEEE Computer Society
Technical Committee on Security and Privacy and the University Grants Committee
. He was made a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
in 1994.
in 1958. Needham died of cancer in March 2003 at his home in Willingham, Cambridgeshire
.
, in 2004, established an annual Roger Needham Award in Needham's honour. A £5000 prize is presented to an individual for making "a distinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK based researcher within ten years of their PhD." The award is funded by Microsoft Research
. The winner of the prize has an opportunity to give a public lecture. A list of previous recipients follows.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
.
Early life
He attended Doncaster Grammar School for Boys in DoncasterDoncaster
Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...
(then in the West Riding
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...
).
Needham began his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in 1953, graduating with a B.A. in 1956 in mathematics and philosophy. His Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
thesis was on applications of digital computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s to the automatic classification and retrieval of documents. He worked on a variety of key computing projects in security
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
, operating systems, computer architecture
Computer architecture
In computer science and engineering, computer architecture is the practical art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance and cost goals and the formal modelling of those systems....
(capability systems) and local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
s.
Career
Among his theoretical contributions is the development of the Burrows-Abadi-Needham logicBurrows-Abadi-Needham logic
Burrows–Abadi–Needham logic is a set of rules for defining and analyzing information exchange protocols. Specifically, BAN logic helps its users determine whether exchanged information is trustworthy, secured against eavesdropping, or both...
for authentication
Authentication
Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...
, generally known as the BAN logic. His Needham-Schroeder (coinvented with Michael Schroeder
Michael Schroeder
Michael Schroeder is a computer scientist perhaps best-known as the co-inventor of the Needham-Schroeder protocol. He is the assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, where he has been since its inception in 2001 when he moved from DEC SRC. His areas of research include...
) security protocol forms the basis of the Kerberos authentication
Authentication
Authentication is the act of confirming the truth of an attribute of a datum or entity...
and key exchange
Key exchange
Key exchange is any method in cryptography by which cryptographic keys are exchanged between users, allowing use of a cryptographic algorithm....
system. He also codesigned the TEA
Tiny Encryption Algorithm
In cryptography, the Tiny Encryption Algorithm is a block cipher notable for its simplicity of description and implementation, typically a few lines of code...
and XTEA
XTEA
In cryptography, XTEA is a block cipher designed to correct weaknesses in TEA. The cipher's designers were David Wheeler and Roger Needham of the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and the algorithm was presented in an unpublished technical report in 1997...
encryption algorithms.
He joined Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, then called the Mathematical Laboratory, in 1962, became head of the laboratory in 1980, was made a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in 1981 and remained with the laboratory until his retirement in 1995. Needham then set up Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's UK-based Research Laboratory
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
in 1997. He was also one of the founding Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
s of University College
Wolfson College, Cambridge
Wolfson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Wolfson is one of a small number of Cambridge colleges which admit only students over the age of 21. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates, with around 15% studying undergraduate...
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, which became Wolfson College
Wolfson College, Cambridge
Wolfson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Wolfson is one of a small number of Cambridge colleges which admit only students over the age of 21. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates, with around 15% studying undergraduate...
.
Needham was elected to the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1985, became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
in 1993 and received a CBE for his contributions to computing
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
in 2001. He also was a longtime and respected member of the International Association for Cryptologic Research
International Association for Cryptologic Research
The International Association for Cryptologic Research is a non-profit scientific organization whose purpose is to further research in cryptology and related fields...
, the IEEE Computer Society
IEEE Computer Society
The IEEE Computer Society is a professional society of IEEE. Its purpose and scope is “to advance the theory, practice, and application of computer and information processing science and technology” and the “professional standing of its members.” The CS is the largest of 38 technical societies...
Technical Committee on Security and Privacy and the University Grants Committee
University Grants Committee (UK)
The University Grants Committee was an advisory committee of the British government, which advised on the distribution of grant funding amongst the British universities. It was in existence from 1919 until 1989...
. He was made a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
in 1994.
Personal life
Needham married Karen Spärck JonesKaren Spärck Jones
Karen Spärck Jones FBA was a British computer scientist.Karen Spärck Jones was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. Her father was Owen Jones, a lecturer in chemistry, and her mother was Ida Spärck, a Norwegian who moved to Britain during World War II...
in 1958. Needham died of cancer in March 2003 at his home in Willingham, Cambridgeshire
Willingham, Cambridgeshire
Willingham is a medium to large village in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the edge of the Fens just south of the River Ouse. Driving north from the village one may observe the characteristic elevated straight roads and black soil....
.
Roger Needham Award
The British Computer SocietyBritish Computer Society
The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...
, in 2004, established an annual Roger Needham Award in Needham's honour. A £5000 prize is presented to an individual for making "a distinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK based researcher within ten years of their PhD." The award is funded by Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research is the research division of Microsoft created in 1991 for developing various computer science ideas and integrating them into Microsoft products. It currently employs Turing Award winners C.A.R. Hoare, Butler Lampson, and Charles P...
. The winner of the prize has an opportunity to give a public lecture. A list of previous recipients follows.
- 2004 Jane HillstonJane HillstonJane Hillston is Professor of Quantitative Modelling and an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland....
on Tuning Systems: From Composition to Performance - 2005 Ian HorrocksIan HorrocksIan Horrocks is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford in the UK and a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford . His research focuses on knowledge representation, particularly ontology languages , description logic, and optimised reasoning algorithms.His work on tableau reasoning for...
on Ontologies and the Semantic Web - 2007 Mark HandleyMark Handley (computer scientist)Mark Handley is Professor of Networked Systems in the Department of Computer Science of University College London since 2003, where he leads the Networks Research Group...
on Evolving the Internet: Challenges, Opportunities and Consequences - 2006 Andrew Fitzgibbon on Computer Vision & the Geometry of Nature
- 2008 Wenfei Fan on A Revival of Data Dependencies for Improving Data Quality
- 2009 Byron Cook on Proving that programs eventually do something good
- 2010 Joël Ouaknine on Timing is Everything
- 2011 Maja Pantic on Machine Understanding of Human Behaviour
EuroSys Roger Needham PhD Award
A separate prize honoring Roger Needham has been established by EuroSys, the "EuroSys Roger Needham PhD Award". This annual prize awards €2,000 to a PhD student from a European University whose thesis is regarded to be an exceptional, innovative contribution to knowledge in the Computer Systems area. Past winners have been:- 2006 Oliver Heckmann (TU Darmstadt) for A System-oriented Approach to Efficiency and Quality of Service for Internet Service Providers
- 2007 Nick Cook (Newcastle University) for Middleware Support for Non-repudiable Business-to-Business Interactions
- 2008 Adam DunkelsAdam DunkelsAdam Dunkels, Ph.D., is a Swedish software engineer, researcher and co-founder of the Networked Embedded Systems Group at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science in Kista, Sweden. His research is mainly focused on networking technology and distributed communication for small embedded devices and...
(SICS) for Programming Memory-Constrained Networked Embedded Systems - 2009 Jacob Gorm Hansen (DIKU) for Virtual Machine Mobility with Self‐Migration
- 2010 Willem de Bruijn (Vrije UniversiteitVrije UniversiteitThe Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
) for Adaptive Operating System Design for High Throughput I/O - 2011 Jorrit Herder (Vrije UniversiteitVrije UniversiteitThe Vrije Universiteit is a university in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch name is often abbreviated as VU and in English the university uses the name "VU University". The university is located on a compact urban campus in the southern part of Amsterdam in the Buitenveldert district...
) for Building a Dependable Operating System: Fault Tolerance in MINIX 3
See also
- Andrew HerbertAndrew HerbertAndrew James Herbert OBE is a British computer scientist, formerly Chairman of Microsoft Research, for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.- Biography :...
- Maurice Wilkes (colleague)
- David Wheeler (colleague)
External links
- Information about Roger Needham provided by his wife
- Obit: Roger Needham, The Register, March 2, 2003
- Roger Needham Dies, Business Weekly, March 3, 2003
- Roger Needham, Computer Security Expert, Dies at 68, The New York Times, March 6, 2003
- Microsoft's Needham dies from cancer, The Seattle Times, March 6, 2003
- Speech presenting Needham with an honorary degree, Loughborough UniversityLoughborough UniversityLoughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
, July 13, 2001