Neal Koblitz

Neal Koblitz
Born	December 24, 1948 (1948-12-24) (age 62)
Nationality	United States
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	University of Washington University of Waterloo
Alma mater	Princeton University Harvard University
Doctoral advisor	Nick Katz
Doctoral students	Dustin Moody Gary Ray Daqing Wan
Known for	Creator of Elliptic and Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography

Neal I. Koblitz (born December 24, 1948^[1]) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography and the independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography. Koblitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1969.^[2] While at Harvard, he was a Putnam Fellow in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 under the direction of Nick Katz. From 1975 to 1979 he was an instructor at Harvard University.^[3] In 1979 he began working at the University of Washington.

Koblitz's 1981 article "Mathematics as Propaganda"^[4] criticized the misuse of mathematics in the social sciences and helped motivate Serge Lang's successful challenge to the nomination of political scientist Samuel P. Huntington to the National Academy of Sciences.^[5] In The Mathematical Intelligencer, Koblitz,^[6][7][8] Steven Weintraub,^[9] and Saunders Mac Lane later criticized the arguments of Herbert Simon, who had attempted to defend Huntington's work.^[10]

With his wife Ann Hibner Koblitz, he in 1985 founded the Kovalevskaia Prize, to honour women scientists in developing countries. It was financed from the royalties of Ann Hibner Koblitz's 1983 biography of Sofia Kovalevskaia.^[11]

Selected publications

• p-adic Numbers, p-adic Analysis, and Zeta-Functions, Graduate Texts in Mathematics No. 58, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1977. Second edition, 1984.
• p-adic Analysis: A Short Course on Recent Work, London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series No. 46, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980.
• Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms, Graduate Texts in Math. No. 97, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1984. Second edition, 1993.
• A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography, Graduate Texts in Math. No. 114, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1987. Second edition, 1994.
• Algebraic Aspects of Cryptography, Algorithms and Computation in Mathematics Vol. 3, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1998.
• Random Curves: Journeys of a Mathematician, his autobiography. Springer-Verlag, 2007.

References

1. ^ Engquist, Björn (ed.); Wilfried Schmid (ed.) (2001), Mathematics Unlimited: 2001 and Beyond, Berlin: Springer, p. 1225, ISBN 9783540669135 
2. ^ Engquist, Björn (ed.); Wilfried Schmid (ed.) (2001), Mathematics Unlimited: 2001 and Beyond, Berlin: Springer, p. 1225, ISBN 9783540669135 
3. ^ Koblitz, Neal (2007), Random Curves: Journeys of a Mathematician, Springer-Verlag, p. 123 
4. ^ Koblitz, Neal (1981), Steen, Lynn Arthur, ed., Mathematics as Propaganda, Springer Verlag, pp. 111–120, ISBN 0387905642 
5. ^ Krantz, Steven George (2005), Mathematical apocrypha redux, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0883855542 
6. ^ Koblitz, Neal (Winter 1988), "A Tale of Three Equations; or The Emperors Have No Clothes", The Mathematical Intelligencer (New York, NY) 10 (1): 4–10, doi:10.1007/BF03023843 
7. ^ Koblitz, Neal (Winter 1988), "Reply to Unclad Emperors", The Mathematical Intelligencer (New York, NY) 10 (1): 14–16, doi:10.1007/BF03023845 
8. ^ Koblitz, Neal (Spring 1988), "Simon Falls off the Wall", The Mathematical Intelligencer (New York, NY) 10 (2): 11–12 
9. ^ Weintraub, Steven H. (Summer 1988), "Trivial Pseudomathematics", The Mathematical Intelligencer (New York, NY) 10 (3): 3–4 
10. ^ Brown, James Robert (1999), Philosophy of mathematics, Routledge, ISBN 0415122759 
11. ^ Hickey, Hannah (2007-11-08), Neal Koblitz: Deciphering the cryptographer, University Week, http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=37835 

External links

• Neal Koblitz's home page
• Neal Koblitz at the Mathematics Genealogy Project.

Persondata
Name	Koblitz, Neal I.
Alternative names
Short description	Mathematician, Cryptographer
Date of birth	December 24, 1948
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death