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Leonard Adleman
Co-creating RSA encryption and showing that DNA can perform computations.
RSA paper · Molecular computation
- Born
- 31 December 1945
- Birthplace
- United States
More people
Leonard Adleman
Leonard Adleman is a computer scientist whose work connects mathematics, cryptography and molecular biology. He shared the 2002 Turing Award for RSA.
Early life
California
Grew up in San Francisco.
Berkeley
Earned a mathematics degree in 1968 and a doctorate in computer science in 1976.
Career
- 1977
RSA
Developed the public-key system with Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir.
- 1980
USC
Joined the University of Southern California.
- 1994
DNA computation
Demonstrated a calculation using DNA molecules.
- 2002
Turing Award
Shared computing’s major award with his RSA collaborators.
Scientific work
RSA paper
Co-authored the published description of the cryptosystem.
Molecular computation
Solved a small path-finding problem using DNA.
Larger DNA experiment
His team solved a 20-variable satisfiability problem.
Beyond work
Film
Served as a mathematical consultant on Sneakers.
Boxing
Pursued amateur boxing as a personal interest.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Biography and career evidence ↗Photo: len adlmen. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.