Martin Edward Hellman

Martin Edward Hellman is an American cryptographer, mathematician, and computer scientist. Born in New York City in 1945, he holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree and has worked as an academic at Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as at IBM. He was educated at New York University, Stanford University, the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, and the Bronx High School of Science. His doctoral advisor was Thomas M. Cover.

Hellman’s notable work includes the Diffie–Hellman key exchange. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Association for Computing Machinery. His awards include the EFF Award, the Turing Award, the Marconi Prize, and the Paris Kanellakis Award. He has taught students such as Whitfield Diffie, Ralph Merkle, and Taher Elgamal. His archives are held at the Computer History Museum.