Editing Neal Koblitz

{{Short description|American mathematician and cryptographer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Neal Koblitz
| image             =
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1948|12|24}}
| birth_place       = 
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| nationality       = American
| fields            = [[Mathematics]]
| workplaces        = [[University of Washington]]<br>[[University of Waterloo]]
| alma_mater        = [[Princeton University]]<br>[[Harvard University]]
| thesis_title      = P-adic Variation of Zeta Functions of Varieties over Finite Fields
| thesis_url        = 
| thesis_year       = 1974
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Nick Katz]]
| doctoral_students = [[Daqing Wan]]
| known_for         = [[elliptic curve cryptography|Elliptic]] and [[hyperelliptic curve cryptography]]
| awards            = [[Levchin Prize]] (2021)
}}

'''Neal I. Koblitz''' (born December 24, 1948)<ref name=Engquist2001>{{Citation |editor1-last = Engquist |editor1-first = Björn |editor1-link = Björn Engquist |editor2-last=Schmid |editor2-first=Wilfried |editor2-link=Wilfried Schmid | title = Mathematics Unlimited: 2001 and Beyond | publisher = Springer | location = Berlin | year = 2001 | isbn = 978-3-540-66913-5 |page= 1225 }}</ref> is a Professor of Mathematics at the [[University of Washington]]. He is also an [[adjunct professor]] with the [[Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research]] at the [[University of Waterloo]].  He is the creator of [[hyperelliptic curve cryptography]] and the independent co-creator of [[elliptic curve cryptography]].

==Biography==
Koblitz received his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in mathematics from [[Harvard University]] in 1969.<ref name=Engquist2001 /> While at Harvard, he was a [[Putnam Fellow]] in 1968.<ref name="MMA">{{cite web|title=Putnam Competition Individual and Team Winners |url=http://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/putnam-competition-individual-and-team-winners |publisher=[[Mathematical Association of America]]|access-date=December 13, 2021}}</ref> He received his Ph.D. from [[Princeton University]] in 1974 under the direction of [[Nick Katz]].  From 1975 to 1979 he was an instructor at Harvard University.<ref>{{Citation | last = Koblitz | first = Neal | title = Random Curves: Journeys of a Mathematician | location=Berlin | publisher = Springer-Verlag | year = 2008 | doi=10.1007/978-3-540-74078-0 |isbn=978-3540740773 | page = 123}}</ref>  In 1979 he began working at the University of Washington.

Koblitz's 1981 article "Mathematics as Propaganda"<ref name=steen>{{Citation | last = Koblitz  | first = Neal  | editor-last = [[Lynn Steen|Steen]]  | editor-first = Lynn Arthur  | chapter = Mathematics as Propaganda |title = Mathematics Tomorrow | year = 1981  | pages = 111–120  | publisher = Springer Verlag  | isbn = 0-387-90564-2 |doi = 10.1007/978-1-4613-8127-3_12 }}</ref> criticized the misuse of mathematics in the [[social science]]s and helped motivate [[Serge Lang]]'s successful challenge to the nomination of [[political scientist]] [[Samuel P. Huntington]] to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=krantz>{{Citation | last = Krantz | first = Steven George | title = Mathematical apocrypha redux | publisher = Cambridge University Press| year = 2005 | isbn = 0-88385-554-2}}</ref> In ''[[The Mathematical Intelligencer]]'', Koblitz,<ref name=koblitz0>{{Citation | doi = 10.1007/BF03023843 | last1 = Koblitz | first1 = Neal | title = A Tale of Three Equations; or The Emperors Have No Clothes | journal = [[The Mathematical Intelligencer]] | volume = 10 | issue = 1 | pages = 4–10 | location = New York, NY | date = Winter 1988| s2cid = 121312716 }}</ref><ref name=koblitz1>{{Citation | doi = 10.1007/BF03023845 | last1 = Koblitz | first1 = Neal | title = Reply to Unclad Emperors| journal = [[The Mathematical Intelligencer]] | volume = 10 | issue = 1 | pages = 14–16 | location = New York, NY | date = Winter 1988| s2cid = 123030288 }}</ref><ref name=koblitz2>{{Citation | last1 = Koblitz | first1 = Neal | title = Simon Falls off the Wall | journal = [[The Mathematical Intelligencer]] | volume = 10 | issue = 2 | pages = 11–12 | location = New York, NY | date = Spring 1988 | doi=10.1007/bf03028350}}</ref> Steven Weintraub,<ref name=weintraub>{{Citation | last1 = Weintraub | first1 = Steven H. | title = Trivial Pseudomathematics | journal = [[The Mathematical Intelligencer]] | volume = 10 | issue = 3 | pages = 3–4 | location = New York, NY | date = Summer 1988 | doi = 10.1007/bf03026633 | s2cid = 189883909 }}</ref> and [[Saunders Mac Lane]] later criticized the arguments of [[Herbert A. Simon]], who had attempted to defend Huntington's work.<ref name=brown>{{Citation | last = Brown | first = James Robert | title = Philosophy of mathematics | publisher = Routledge| year = 1999 | isbn = 0-415-12275-9}}</ref>

He co-invented [[elliptic-curve cryptography]] in 1985<ref>{{cite journal |first=N. |last=Koblitz |title=Elliptic curve cryptosystems |journal=Mathematics of Computation |volume=48 |issue=177 |year=1987 |pages=203–209 |doi= 10.2307/2007884|jstor=2007884 |doi-access=free }}</ref> with [[Victor S. Miller]], and for this was awarded the Levchin Prize<ref>[https://rwc.iacr.org/LevchinPrize/#Winners Levchin Prize]</ref> in 2021.

With his wife [[Ann Hibner Koblitz]], he in 1985 founded the Kovalevskaia Prize to honor women scientists in [[developing countries]]. It was financed from the royalties of Ann Hibner Koblitz's 1983 biography of [[Sofia Kovalevskaia]].<ref name=hickey>{{citation | last = Hickey | first = Hannah | title=Neal Koblitz: Deciphering the cryptographer |url=http://www.washington.edu/news/2007/11/08/neal-koblitz-deciphering-the-cryptographer/ | publisher = University Week|date=2007-11-08}}</ref> Although the awardees have ranged over many fields of [[science]], one of the 2011 winners was a Vietnamese mathematician, [[Lê Thị Thanh Nhàn]].<ref>{{citation|url=http://vietnamnews.vn/sunday/features/222076/women-make-their-mark-in-sciences.html|title=Women make their mark in sciences|date=March 13, 2012|newspaper=[[Việt Nam News]]|first=Ha|last=Nguyen}}.</ref>

Koblitz's 2007 article "The uneasy relationship between mathematics and cryptography" discusses the increased contact between mathematics and cryptography in the 1990s. He argues that there is an unjustified "aura" placed onto mathematical proofs in cryptographic competitions and received much ire for the view.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koblitz |first1=Neal |title=The uneasy relationship between mathematics and cryptography |journal=Notices of the AMS |date=2007 |volume=54 |pages=972–979 |url=https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~ajmeneze/anotherlook/ams.shtml}}</ref> Koblitz, in co-operation with [[Alfred Menezes]], went on to write a series of ''Another Look'' papers that describe errors or weaknesses in existing security proofs, the first being ''Another look at HMAC'' (2013). The two now maintain a website dedicated to this type of papers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Neal |first1=Koblitz |last2=Alfred |first2=Menezes |title=Another Look at Provable Security |url=https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~ajmeneze/anotherlook/index.shtml |website=www.math.uwaterloo.ca}}</ref>

In 2011, Koblitz published "Elliptic curve cryptography: The serpentine course of a paradigm shift" with Ann Hibner Koblitz and Alfred Menezes. Using the history of ECC and shifting attitudes in the cryptographic community, the article argues that the field of cryptography is not as scientific and meritocratic as cryptographers want to show to the outside world; the field is [[technological constructivism|controlled by social factors]], especially path dependence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Koblitz |first1=Ann Hibner |last2=Koblitz |first2=Neal |last3=Menezes |first3=Alfred |title=Elliptic curve cryptography: The serpentine course of a paradigm shift |journal=Journal of Number Theory |date=May 2011 |volume=131 |issue=5 |pages=781–814 |doi=10.1016/j.jnt.2009.01.006 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of University of Waterloo people]]
* [[Gross–Koblitz formula]]

==Selected publications==
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=1984 |orig-date=1977 |title=''p''-adic Numbers, ''p''-adic Analysis, and Zeta-Functions |edition=Second |series=[[Graduate Texts in Mathematics]] |volume=58 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-1112-9 |isbn=978-1-4612-1112-9}}
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=1980 |title=p-adic Analysis: a Short Course on Recent Work |series=London Mathematical Society Lecture Note Series |volume=46 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521280600 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/sg/academic/subjects/mathematics/number-theory/p-adic-analysis-short-course-recent-work |access-date=10 August 2022}}
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=1993 |orig-date=1984 |title=Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms |edition=Second |series=[[Graduate Texts in Mathematics]] |volume=97 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-1-4612-0909-6 |isbn=978-1-4612-0909-6}}
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=1994 |orig-date=1987 |title=A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography |edition=Second |series=[[Graduate Texts in Mathematics]] |volume=114 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-8592-7 |isbn=978-1-4419-8592-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=1998 |title=Algebraic Aspects of Cryptography |series=Algorithms and Computation in Mathematics |volume=3 |publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] |location=New York |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-03642-6 |isbn=978-3-662-03642-6}}
*{{cite book |last=Koblitz |first=Neal |author-mask=1 |year=2008 |title=Random Curves: Journeys of a Mathematician |publisher=Springer-Verlag |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-74078-0 |isbn=978-3540740773}}

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==External links==
*[http://www.math.washington.edu/~koblitz/ Neal Koblitz's home page]
*{{MathGenealogy|id=28312}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koblitz, Neal}}
[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:21st-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:Public-key cryptographers]]
[[Category:Putnam Fellows]]
[[Category:American number theorists]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Princeton University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Washington faculty]]