Contents
Whitfield Diffie
Pioneering public-key cryptography with Martin Hellman.
New Directions in Cryptography · Key exchange
- Born
- 5 June 1944
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., United States
More people
Whitfield Diffie
Whitfield Diffie helped change how private communication could work over open networks. His research separated the ability to protect a message from possession of a shared secret in advance.
Early life
Books on codes
Became interested in cryptography as a child when his father brought home library books on the subject.
Mathematics
Graduated from MIT in 1965 before working on computer systems.
Career
- 1965
MITRE
Worked on research software, including symbolic mathematics.
- 1969
Stanford laboratory
Joined the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
- 1974–1976
Cryptography partnership
Met Martin Hellman and developed new approaches to secure communication.
- 2015
Turing Award
Shared the computing award with Hellman.
Contributions
New Directions in Cryptography
Co-authored the landmark paper introducing public-key concepts and digital signatures.
Key exchange
Helped devise a way for two parties to establish a shared secret over an exposed channel.
Privacy on the Line
Co-wrote a book with Susan Landau about communications security and surveillance.
Beyond work
Independent research
Travelled between libraries and university contacts while pursuing cryptography outside a conventional academic post.
Privacy advocacy
Has argued that cryptography should protect individuals, rather than serving only government secrecy.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗ACM Turing citation ↗Photo: Duncan.Hull. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
