Martin Hellman - Biography

Martin Edward Hellman (born October 2, 1945) is an American cryptologist, and is best known for his invention of public key cryptography in cooperation with Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle. Hellman is a long-time contributor to the computer privacy debate and is more recently known for promoting risk analysis studies on nuclear threats, including the NuclearRisk.org website.

Early life

Hellman graduated from the Bronx High School of Science. He went on to earn his Bachelor's degree from New York University in 1966, and at Stanford University he earned a Master's degree in 1967 and a Ph.D. in 1969, all in electrical engineering. From 1968–1969 he worked at IBM's Watson Research Center where he encountered Horst Feistel. From 1969–1971 he was an assistant professor at MIT. He joined Stanford in 1971 as a professor, serving until 1996 when he became Professor Emeritus.

Public key cryptography

Hellman and Whitfield Diffie's paper New Directions in Cryptography was published in 1976. It introduced a radically new method of distributing cryptographic keys, which went far toward solving one of the fundamental problems of cryptography, key distribution. It has become known as Diffie–Hellman key exchange. The article also seems to have stimulated the almost immediate public development of a new class of encryption algorithms, the asymmetric key algorithms. Hellman 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.

Computer privacy debate

Hellman has been a long-time contributor to the computer privacy debate, starting with the issue of DES key size in 1975 and culminating with service (1994–96) on the National Research Council's Committee to Study National Cryptographic Policy, whose main recommendations have since been implemented.

Defusing the nuclear threat

Hellman has been active in researching international security since 1985. His current project in this area is to defuse the Nuclear threat. In particular, Hellman is studying the probabilities and risks associated with nuclear weapons and encouraging further international research in this area. His website NuclearRisk.org has been endorsed by a number of prominent individuals including a former Director of the National Security Agency, Stanford's President Emeritus, and two Nobel Laureates.

Awards and honors

In 1997 he was awarded The Franklin Institute's Louis E. Levy Medal, in 1981 the IEEE Donald G. Fink Prize Paper Award (together with Whitfield Diffie), in 1998 a Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the IEEE Information Theory Society, and in 2010 he was awarded the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal. In 2011, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

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External links

• Martin Hellman's Stanford Webpage
• Martin Hellman's page of publications
• Oral history interview with Martin Hellman Oral history interview 2004, Palo Alto, California. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Hellman describes his invention of public key cryptography with collaborators Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle at Stanford University in the mid-1970s. He also relates his subsequent work in cryptography with Steve Pohlig (the Pohlig–Hellman algorithm) and others. Hellman addresses the National Security Agency’s (NSA) early efforts to contain and discourage academic work in the field, the Department of Commerce’s encryption export restrictions (under the International Traffic of Arms Regulation, or ITAR), and key escrow (the so-called Clipper chip). He also touches on the commercialization of cryptography with RSA Data Security and VeriSign.
• Martin Hellman's website on the risk of nuclear threat from nuclear war or nuclear terrorism
• "Defusing the nuclear threat and making the world safer" Announcement of Hellman presentation at U.C. Santa Cruz; Oct. 2008
• Hellman at the 2009 RSA conference, video with Hellman participating on the Cryptographer's Panel, April 21, 2009, Moscone Center, San Francisco
• Soaring, Cryptography and Nuclear Weapons