{"51968":{"#nid":"51968","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor Featured as the \u0022Best Unsung Hero\u0022 in Information Security Magazine","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERalph Merkle, Distinguished Professor of Computing \u0026amp; Director of the Georgia Institute of Technology Information Security Center, knows his contributions to the development of public key cryptography could have received more attention.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter all, two other researchers -- Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman -- received the prestigious Marconi Foundation award in 2000 for advancing PKI technology, which paved the way for virtually every secure online transaction. But Merkle accepts that notoriety is fickle and understands that his well-documented contributions are known to anyone truly interested in infosecurity. Most Stanford University patents for public keys credit his work, and Merkle\u0027s research, which he began in the early 1970s, is cited in dozens of cryptography books.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The awareness of people\u0027s specific contributions in highly technical areas is often highly variable,\u0022 Merkle says. \u0022I actually feel quite fortunate to have as high a level of recognition as I have had. Looking at it objectively, quite a few people in the industry are aware of my contributions.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOne reason why Merkle\u0027s work may have been somewhat overlooked is that he hasn\u0027t devoted his entire career to infosecurity. For years, he devoted most of his attention to cutting-edge nanotechnology research, most recently with a startup in Dallas. He did, however, continue some infosecurity work on the side.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen the Georgia Institute of Technology called with an offer to take over its Information Security Center, Merkle knew the time had come to focus more on infosecurity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Interest in computer security is driven by events, and the number of events is increasing dramatically,\u0022 he says. \u0022That means that resources are now available that weren\u0027t 10 or 20 years ago. When there were no resources, working on the problem was a lot less interesting. Now that there\u0027s been this huge shift, it makes the whole thing a lot more fun.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ERich Demillo, the dean of the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, says that as soon as Merkle surfaced as a candidate, the university moved to land him. And while not all of his students know of his seminal contributions to the field, they quickly realize he has a lot to offer.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022He\u0027s such an understated guy,\u0022 Demillo says. \u0022But the students catch on real quick. They can tell right away there\u0027s a lot of substance there.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp class=\u0022discreet\u0022\u003EMore Information:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/infosecuritymag.techtarget.com\/ss\/0,295796,sid6_iss288_art514,00.html\u0022\u003EInformation Security Magazine Article\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERalph Merkle, Distinguished Professor of Computing \u0026amp; Director of\nthe Georgia Institute of Technology Information Security Center, knows\nhis contributions to the development of public key cryptography could\nhave received more attention.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27154","created_gmt":"2010-02-09 21:53:09","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:05:29","author":"Louise Russo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-12-01T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2003-12-01T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}