Gustavus J. Simmons (born 1930) is a retired

cryptographer Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

and former manager of the

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...

Department and Senior Fellow at

Sandia National Laboratories Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force Bas ...

. He worked primarily with

authentication Authentication (from ''authentikos'', "real, genuine", from αὐθέντης ''authentes'', "author") is the act of proving an assertion, such as the identity of a computer system user. In contrast with identification, the act of indicatin ...

theory, developing cryptographic techniques for solving problems of mutual distrust and in devising protocols whose function could be trusted, even though some of the inputs or participants cannot be. Simmons was born in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

and was named after his grandfather, a

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...

officer who was gunned down three years before Gustavus was born. He began his post-secondary education at Deep Springs College, and received his Ph.D in mathematics from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

, Albuquerque. Simmons has published over 170 papers, many of which are devoted to asymmetric encryption techniques. His technical contributions include the development of subliminal channels which make it possible to conceal covert communications in

digital signatures A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very high confidence that the message was created b ...

and the mathematical formulation of an authentication channel paralleling in many respects the secrecy channel formulated by

Claude Shannon Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory". As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts I ...

in 1948. In the 1980s, he helped found the

International Association for Cryptologic Research International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(IACR). He is also the creator of the

Ramsey Ramsey may refer to: Geography British Isles * Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, a small market town in England * Ramsey, Essex, a village near Harwich, England ** Ramsey and Parkeston, a civil parish formerly called just "Ramsey" * Ramsey, Isle of Man, t ...

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of '' graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conn ...

-based mathematical game Sim. At Sandia, Simmons was primarily concerned with the command and control of

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

, where the objective is to separate possession of a weapon from the ability to autonomously use it, something which should only be possible on receipt of an authenticated order from the National Command Authority, in using authentication to make possible the verification of compliance with various arms control treaties, and in the cryptographic aspects of verifying adherence to the

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) is a multilateral treaty to ban nuclear weapons test explosions and any other nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nat ...

for nuclear weapons. In a review of ''Contemporary Cryptology'' (see publications),

Don Coppersmith Don Coppersmith (born 1950) is a cryptographer and mathematician. He was involved in the design of the Data Encryption Standard block cipher at IBM, particularly the design of the S-boxes, strengthening them against differential cryptanalysis ...

summarized the problem:

Is the host substituting a false signal to mask the fact that it is continuing tests? Is the monitor really using the device to transmit other information than that allowed by the treaty? Who supplies the hardware? Can that person cheat?

Awards and recognition

In 1947 he was one of 40 finalists in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. In 1986, Simmons was the recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic par ...

. In 1991, he was awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

from

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion IACR Fellow, "for pioneering research in information integrity, information theory, and secure protocols and for substantial contributions to the formation of the IACR." He was invited to write the section on cryptology in the 16th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1986) and to revise the section for the current edition. He was Rothschild Professor at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University and Visiting Fellow of Trinity College, 1995–96. He was awarded the 2009 James F. Zimmerman Award by the University of New Mexico. The award is given to one alumnus of UNM each year in honor of James F. Zimmerman, president of the university from 1927 – 1944. In 2019, Simmons was awarded the Test of Time Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers at the 40th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco. The award was given for his work and subsequent paper from 1983, entitled Verification of Treaty Compliance—Revisited.IEEE Award Citation
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Publications

* Simmons, Gustavus J. (Editor), ''Contemporary Cryptology: The Science of Information Integrity'' (Wiley 1999) - * Simmons, Gustavus J. (Editor with Thomas Beth and Markus Frisch), "Public-key cryptography; State of the Art and Future Directions (Springer-Verlag, 1992) * Simmons, Gustavus J. (Author), Verification of Treaty Compliance—Revisited (IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, 1983) * Simmons, Gustavus J. (Editor), Secure Communications and Asymmetric Cryptosystems (Westview Press for the AAAS, 1982) *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Gustavus 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Deep Springs College alumni Modern cryptographers 1930 births Living people International Association for Cryptologic Research fellows Sandia National Laboratories people