Citizenship American Spouse Carol Shaw Role Cryptographer | Name Ralph Merkle Nationality American | |
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Born February 2, 1952 (age 72) Berkeley, California ( 1952-02-02 ) Institutions Singularity UniversityAlcor Life Extension FoundationInstitute for Molecular ManufacturingElxsiGeorgia Institute of Technology Thesis Secrecy, authentication and public key systems Known for Co-inventor of public key cryptographyMerkle treeMerkle's puzzlesMerkle–Hellman knapsack cryptosystemMerkle–Damgard construction Books Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Secrecy, authentication, and public key systems Education Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Liver High School Fields Public-key cryptography, Molecular nanotechnology, Cryonics Similar People Martin Hellman, Robert Freitas, Whitfield Diffie, K Eric Drexler | ||
Big thinkers ralph merkle nanotechnologist
Ralph C. Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a computer scientist. He is one of the inventors of public key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker of cryonics.
Contents
- Big thinkers ralph merkle nanotechnologist
- Eb141 ralph merkle revolutionizing democracy using daos
- Contributions
- Career
- Personal life
- Awards
- References
Eb141 ralph merkle revolutionizing democracy using daos
Contributions
Merkle devised a scheme for communication over an insecure channel: Merkle's puzzles as part of a class project while an undergraduate. The scheme is now recognized to be an early example of public key cryptography. He co-invented the Merkle–Hellman knapsack cryptosystem, invented cryptographic hashing (now called the Merkle–Damgård construction based on a pair of articles published 10 years later that established the security of the scheme), and invented Merkle trees. While at Xerox PARC, Merkle designed the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers, and the Snefru hash function.
Career
Merkle was the manager of compiler development at Elxsi from 1980. In 1988, he became a research scientist at Xerox PARC. In 1999 he became a nanotechnology theorist for Zyvex. In 2003 he became a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech, where he led the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. In 2006 he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has been a senior research fellow at IMM, a faculty member at Singularity University, and a board member of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He was awarded the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2010.
Personal life
Ralph Merkle is the grandnephew of baseball star Fred Merkle, the son of Theodore Charles Merkle, director of Project Pluto and the brother of Judith Merkle Riley, a historical writer. Merkle is married to Carol Shaw, the video game designer best known for her game, River Raid.
Merkle is on the Board of Directors of the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation.
Merkle appears in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age, involving nanotechnology.