Neal I. Koblitz is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research

Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research

The Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research is a group of industrial representatives, professors, and students at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada who work and do research in the field of cryptography....

 at the University of Waterloo

University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo is a comprehensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The school was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles, and has since grown to an institution of more than 30,000 students, faculty, and staff...

. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography

Hyperelliptic curve cryptography

Hyperelliptic curve cryptography is similar to elliptic curve cryptography insofar as the Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve is an Abelian group on which to do arithmetic, just as we use the group of points on an elliptic curve in ECC.-Definition:...

 and the independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography

Elliptic curve cryptography

Elliptic curve cryptography is an approach to public-key cryptography based on the algebraic structure of elliptic curves over finite fields. The use of elliptic curves in cryptography was suggested independently by Neal Koblitz and Victor S...

. Koblitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1969. While at Harvard, he was a Putnam Fellow in 1968. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in 1974 under the direction of Nick Katz

Nick Katz

Nicholas Michael Katz is an American mathematician, working in the fields of algebraic geometry, particularly on p-adic methods, monodromy and moduli problems, and number theory...

. From 1975 to 1979 he was an instructor at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. In 1979 he began working at the University of Washington.

Koblitz's 1981 article "Mathematics as Propaganda" criticized the misuse of mathematics in the social sciences and helped motivate Serge Lang

Serge Lang

Serge Lang was a French-born American mathematician. He was known for his work in number theory and for his mathematics textbooks, including the influential Algebra...

's successful challenge to the nomination of political scientist Samuel P. Huntington

Samuel P. Huntington

Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...

 to the National Academy of Sciences

United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

. In The Mathematical Intelligencer, Koblitz, Steven Weintraub, and Saunders Mac Lane

Saunders Mac Lane

Saunders Mac Lane was an American mathematician who cofounded category theory with Samuel Eilenberg.-Career:...

 later criticized the arguments of Herbert Simon

Herbert Simon

Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...

, who had attempted to defend Huntington's work.

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.

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.

External links

• Neal Koblitz's home page