Ralph C. Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a computer scientist and mathematician. He is one of the inventors of public-key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker on cryonics.

Contributions

While an undergraduate, Merkle devised Merkle's Puzzles, a scheme for communication over an

insecure channel In cryptography, a secure channel is a means of data transmission that is resistant to overhearing and tampering. A confidential channel is a means of data transmission that is resistant to overhearing, or eavesdropping (e.g., reading the conten ...

, as part of a class project. The scheme is now recognized to be an early example of public key cryptography. He co-invented the Merkle–Hellman knapsack cryptosystem, invented

cryptographic hashing A cryptographic hash function (CHF) is a hash algorithm (a map of an arbitrary binary string to a binary string with fixed size of n bits) that has special properties desirable for cryptography: * the probability of a particular n-bit output re ...

(now called the Merkle–Damgård construction based on a pair of articles published 10 years later that established the security of the scheme), and invented Merkle trees. The Merkle–Damgård construction is at the heart of many hashing algorithms. While at Xerox PARC, Merkle designed the

Khufu and Khafre In cryptography, Khufu and Khafre are two block ciphers designed by Ralph Merkle in 1989 while working at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center. Along with Snefru, a cryptographic hash function, the ciphers were named after the Egyptian Pharaohs Khuf ...

block cipher In cryptography, a block cipher is a deterministic algorithm operating on fixed-length groups of bits, called ''blocks''. Block ciphers are specified cryptographic primitive, elementary components in the design of many cryptographic protocols and ...

s, and the

Snefru Snefru is a cryptographic hash function invented by Ralph Merkle in 1990 while working at Xerox PARC. The function supports 128-bit and 256-bit output. It was named after the Egyptian Pharaoh Sneferu, continuing the tradition of the Khufu and Kh ...

hash function.

Career

Merkle was the manager of compiler development at

Elxsi Elxsi Corporation was a minicomputer manufacturing company established in the late 1970s in Silicon Valley, USA, along with a host of competitors ( Trilogy Systems, Sequent, Convex Computer). The Elxsi processor was an Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) d ...

from 1980. In 1988, he became a research scientist at Xerox PARC. In 1999 he became a nanotechnology theorist for

Zyvex Zyvex is a molecular nanotechnology company, founded by James R. Von Ehr II in 1997. In April 2007, the corporation split into four components: Zyvex Technologies, Zyvex Instruments (focused on tools, instrumentation, and applications for the s ...

. In 2003 he became a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech, where he led the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. In 2006 he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he has been a senior research fellow at IMM, a faculty member at

Singularity University Singularity Education Group (using the public names Singularity Group, Singularity University or SingularityU) is an American company that offers executive educational programs, a business incubator, and business consultancy services. Although ...

, and a board member of the

Alcor Life Extension Foundation The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, most often referred to as Alcor, is an American nonprofit, federally tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization based in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States. Alcor advocates for, researches, and performs cryonics, the ...

. He was awarded the

IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal is presented annually to up to three persons, for outstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology. The recipients receive a gold medal, together with a replica in ...

in 2010. He is active in the field of molecular manipulation and self-replicating machines and has published books on the subject.

Personal life

Ralph Merkle is a grandnephew of baseball star Fred Merkle; son of Theodore Charles Merkle, director of

Project Pluto Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively. On 1 January 1957, th ...

; and brother of

Judith Merkle Riley Judith Merkle Riley (January 14, 1942 – September 12, 2010) was an American writer, teacher and academic who wrote six historical romance novels. Biography Judith Astria Merkle was born in 1942 and grew up in Livermore, California. Her grea ...

, a historical writer. Merkle is married to Carol Shaw, the video game designer best known for the 1982 Atari 2600 game, '' River Raid''. Merkle is on the board of directors of the cryonics organization

. Merkle appears in the science fiction novel ''

The Diamond Age ''The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in ...

'', involving nanotechnology.

Awards

* 1996 Paris Kanellakis Award (from the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

) for the Invention of Public Key Cryptography. * 1998

Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology The Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology is an award given by the Foresight Institute for significant advances in nanotechnology. Two prizes are awarded annually, in the categories of experimental and theoretical work. There is also a separate challe ...

for computational modeling of molecular tools for atomically-precise chemical reactions * 1999

IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award The IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award is a Technical Field Award of the IEEE established in 1986. This award has been presented annually since 1988 for outstanding contributions to the integration of computers and commun ...

* 2000

RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics RSA may refer to: Organizations Academia and education * Rabbinical Seminary of America, a yeshiva in New York City *Regional Science Association International (formerly the Regional Science Association), a US-based learned society *Renaissance S ...

for the invention of public key cryptography. * 2008 International Association for Cryptographic Research (IACR) fellow for the invention of public key cryptography. * 2010 IEEE Hamming Medal for the invention of public key cryptography * 2011

Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact on ...

Fellow "for his work, with Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, on public key cryptography." * 2011 National Inventors Hall of Fame, for the invention of public key cryptography * 2012

National Cyber Security Hall of Fame The National Cyber Security Hall of Fame, founded by Larry Letow and Rick Geritz, was established in 2012 to recognize the contributions of key individuals in the field of cyber security; its mission statement is, ''Respect the Past - Protect the F ...

inductee

References

* Ralph C. Merkle, ''Secrecy, authentication, and public key systems'' (Computer science), UMI Research Press, 1982, . *

Robert A. Freitas Jr. Robert A. Freitas Jr. (born 1952) is an American nanotechnologist. Career In 1974, Freitas earned a bachelor's degree in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and in 1978, he received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Santa Clar ...

, Ralph C. Merkle, ''Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines'', Landes Bioscience, 2004, . * Paul Kantor (Ed), Gheorghe Mureşan (Ed), Fred Roberts (Ed),

Daniel Zeng Daniel Zeng from the University of Arizona and CAS Institute of Automation, Tucson, Arizona was named Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2016 ''for contributions to collaborative computing with applications ...

(Ed), Frei-Yue Wang (Ed),

Hsinchun Chen Hsinchun Chen is the Regents' Professor and Thomas R. Brown Chair of Management and Technology at the University of Arizona and the Director and founder of the Artificial Intelligence Lab (AI Lab). He also served as lead program director of the Sm ...

(Ed), Ralph Merkle (Ed), "Intelligence and Security Informatics" : ''IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics'', ISI 2005, Atlanta, GA, US, May 19–20, ... ( Lecture Notes in Computer Science), Springer, 2005, .
Interview
at Google Videos in the Death in the Deep Freeze documentary (August 2, 2006)
Nova Southeastern University, Nanotechnology Expert Ralph Merkle to Speak on "Life and Death"
(August 2008)

External links

Oral history interview with Martin Hellman
from 2004, Palo Alto, California. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Hellman describes his invention of public key cryptography with collaborators Whitfield Diffie and Ralph Merkle at Stanford University in the mid-1970s. He also relates his subsequent work in cryptography with

Steve Pohlig Stephen Pohlig (1953-April 14, 2017) was an electrical engineer who worked in the MIT Lincoln Laboratory. As a graduate student of Martin Hellman's at Stanford University in the mid-1970s, he helped develop the underlying concepts of Diffie-Hellm ...

(the Pohlig–Hellman system) and others. {{DEFAULTSORT:Merkle, Ralph 1952 births Living people American cryptographers American people of Swiss descent Cryonicists Modern cryptographers American nanotechnologists Georgia Tech faculty 20th-century American inventors International Association for Cryptologic Research fellows Scientists at PARC (company) Computer security academics