Susan Landau is an American mathematician and engineer, as of 2011, a Visiting Scholar at the Computer Science Department, 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 2010-2011, she was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard is an educational institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the semiautonomous components of Harvard University. It is heir to the name and buildings of Radcliffe College, but unlike that historical institution, its focus is directed...

 at Harvard, where she investigated issues involving security of government systems, and their privacy and policy implications.

From 1999 until 2010, she specialized in internet security

Internet security

Internet security is a branch of computer security specifically related to the Internet. Its objective is to establish rules and measures to use against attacks over the Internet. The Internet represents an insecure channel for exchanging information leading to a high risk of intrusion or fraud,...

 at Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems

Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

. In 1989 she introduced the first algorithm

Algorithm

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...

 for deciding which nested radicals can be denested.

In 1972, her project on odd perfect number

Perfect number

In number theory, a perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its proper positive divisors, that is, the sum of its positive divisors excluding the number itself . Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors i.e...

s won a finalist position in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. Outside of her technical work, she is interested in the issues of women in science

Women in science

Women have made contributions and sacrifices to science from the earliest times. Like many men in science, women have received little or no distinction for their work during their lifetimes. Science is generally and historically a male-dominated field, and evidence suggests that this is due to...

, maintaining the ResearcHers Email list, a "forum for women computer science researchers", and an online bibliography of women's writing in computer science. She was awarded the 2008 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award

Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards

The Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Awards honor exceptional technical women. Three awards are presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology each year, recognizing women in the categories of Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact.-Awards:...

for Social Impact.

External links

• Susan Landau – Susan Landau's webpage, with pointers to most of her publications
• Internet Eavesdropping: A Brave New World of Wiretapping – Article by Landau