Martin E. Hellman is best known for inventing public key cryptography, the technology that enables secure Internet transactions and that protects literally trillions of dollars in financial transactions every day. Among other honors, this work was recognized by the million-dollar ACM Turing Award and election to the National Academy of Engineering.

Hellman was on the EE Faculty at MIT (1969-1971) and moved to Stanford in 1971, retiring as a full professor in 1996. He now is professor emeritus, as well as being affiliated with Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). A statement of support for his current project on Rethinking National Security has been signed by former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, former Director of NSA Adm. Bobby Inman, and Ronald Reagan’s Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock, among others.