C U R R I C U L U M V I T A E : BRIEF EXCERPTS
Peter Schweitzer
Began cryptographic career as a member of Horst Feistel’s cryptograhic research group at U. S. Air Force Cambridge Research Center. That group laid the foundation for most encryption schemes invented since then. P.S. invented an element of cryptographic-logical design [keying by addition of subsets of a crypto variable between identical iterations of a crypto-logical function] that soon became, and remains today, a crucial component of most encryption schemes, both public and governmental. In contrast to all the principal pillars of Public Key Cryptography, this idea had not been previously invented by the British or U.S.A. cryptographic agencies.
He also began his cryptanalytic career with the startling demolition of a cryptographic scheme on the verge of N.S.A. approval for an important application. His suggested replacement has remained in use for an unprecedented length of time.
P.S. and Feistel did the first work on cryptographically-based authentication, which has become an essential pillar of communication-security architecture. Other interests were in communication theory, including a new view of Shannon’s Theorem [on error-free transmission over noisy channels] and the novel techniques of Spread Spectrum and Rake.
He continued cryptologic work via invitations to Institute for Defense Analyses summer study groups on cryptological and related mathematical problems.
Since 1974. After the escape of cryptography from governmental confinement, both through the published invention of “Public-Key” cryptography and the development of the Data Encryption Standard (originated by Feistel at I.B.M.), he became a consultant on information security. Clients not (or no longer) requesting confidentiality include the Federal Reserve Bank, the (late) Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Lotus, Lucent, Qualcomm, McKinsey & Co., Security Dynamics and RSA.
He has lectured on cryptography at an M.I.T. Special Summer Program, at a seminar organized by S. A. I. C. for a government-agency audience, and at Sun Microsystems.
He was initiator, and co-organizer (with Whitfield Diffie) of a closed invitational conference, The Future of Cryptography (1986); he is currently at work on a paper, Mathematics and the Future of Cryptanalysis.
Since 1989. Co-worker of Information Security Systems Inc. (I.S.S.I.), where his colleagues, retired from N.S.A., include the legendary “Jim” Frazer (founder) and a number of N.S.A.’s best-ever cryptanalysts (in early retirement). He continues to devise powerful and original cutting-edge methods of cryptanalysis.
A.B., A.M., Harvard University, mathematics. Also completed all requirements except Orchestration for A.B. in music.
Graduate study, National Science Foundation Fellow, M.I.T., completed non-thesis requirements for Ph.D. in mathematics.
Graduate study and thesis research, Zürich University, completed non-thesis requirements for Ph.D. in theoretical physics.
Papers on laser theory in The Physical Review and Zeitschrift_für Angewandte Mathematik und Physik, and presented at Banff International Conference on Critical Phenomena.
Patent #5,850,450: Method and Apparatus for Encryption Key Creation. |
