Ralph C. Merkle was born on February 2, 1952. He is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is one of the inventors of public-key cryptography, the inventor of cryptographic hashing, and more recently a researcher and speaker on cryonics.

Merkle is a well-known cryptographer. He developed Merkle's Puzzles, co-invented the Merkle–Hellman knapsack cryptosystem, and created cryptographic hashing (Merkle–Damgård construction) and Merkle trees. He has worked as a manager at Elxsi, a research scientist at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), and a nanotechnology theorist at Zyvex. He has held positions as a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech, a senior research fellow at IMM, a faculty member at Singularity University, and a board member at Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2010 and has written about molecular manipulation and self-replicating machines.

Ralph Merkle is a grandnephew of baseball player Fred Merkle and is married to video game designer Carol Shaw. He serves on the board of directors of the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation and appears in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age.

Contributions

During his undergraduate studies, Merkle created Merkle's Puzzles, a method for secure communication over an unsecured channel, as part of a class project at UC Berkeley. This method is now known as one of the first examples of public key cryptography. He also co-invented the Merkle–Hellman knapsack cryptosystem, developed cryptographic hashing (now called the Merkle–Damgård construction, based on two articles published 10 years later that confirmed the security of the method), and created Merkle trees. The Merkle–Damgård construction is used in many hashing algorithms. At Xerox PARC, Merkle designed the Khufu and Khafre block ciphers and the Snefru hash function.

Career

Merkle worked as a manager for creating software tools at Elxsi from 1980. In 1988, he became a scientist at Xerox PARC. In 1999, he worked on theories about nanotechnology for Zyvex. In 2003, he became a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech, where he led the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. In 2006, he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he worked as a senior research fellow at IMM, taught at Singularity University, and served on the board of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 2010. He is active in the field of manipulating molecules and creating self-replicating machines and has written books about these topics.

Personal life

Ralph Merkle is the grandnephew of baseball star Fred Merkle. He is the son of Theodore Charles Merkle, who was the director of Project Pluto. He is also the brother of Judith Merkle Riley, a historical writer. Merkle is married to Carol Shaw, a video game designer who is best known for creating the 1982 Atari 2600 game River Raid.

Merkle is a member of the board of directors for the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

Merkle appears in the science fiction novel The Diamond Age, which involves nanotechnology.

Awards

• 1996 Paris Kanellakis Award (from the ACM) for creating public key cryptography.
• 1998 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for using computer models to study tiny tools that help create precise chemical reactions.
• 1999 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award.
• 2000 RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics for creating public key cryptography.
• 2008 International Association for Cryptographic Research (IACR) fellow for creating public key cryptography.
• 2010 IEEE Hamming Medal for creating public key cryptography.
• 2011 Computer History Museum Fellow "for his work, with Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, on public key cryptography."
• 2011 National Inventors Hall of Fame, for creating public key cryptography.
• 2012 National Cyber Security Hall of Fame inductee.
• 2020 Levchin Prize “for important work in creating public key cryptography, hash algorithms, Merkle trees, and digital signatures.”