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BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm/
and the
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
L E C T U R E
Thursday 29 April 1999 at 1730
in the Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College, London
DR WHITFIELD DIFFIE
Sun Microsystems, California, U. S. A.
"NON-SECRET ENCRYPTION AND PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY"
In a remarkable case of 'scientific parallelism', a secret British group
and a public American group, working entirely independently, made very
similar discoveries during the early 1970s. The discovery was a
revolutionary new form of cryptography. What was 'Non-secret Encryption'
to the British and 'Public Key Cryptography' to the Americans, is at the
heart of internet commerce and is achieving wide use throughout
telecommunication.
The speaker, whose interests are both historical and scientific, was a
participant in the American endeavour and has studied the work of the
British team since the early 1980s.
Join us for a talk that will range from reflections on the personal
experience of discovery to an examination of the techniques developed and
analysis of the differences in thinking of the two groups.
Further details on the BSHM web site and from J. V. Field, Dept of History
of Art, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, fax and voice
messages 0171.736.9198; email [log in to unmask]
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