Communications of the ACM
Bbva Foundation Recognizes Goldwasser, Micali, Rivest, Shamir, For Enabling a Secure Digital Society
The BBVA Foundation, which promotes research, advanced training, and the transmission of knowledge to society, has recognized ACM A.M. Turing recipients Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Ron Rivest, and Adi Shamir with its BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Know
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category goes, in this tenth edition, to Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Ronald Rivest and Adi Shamir for their "fundamental contributions to modern cryptology, an area of a tremendous impact on our everyday life," in the words of the jury's citation. "Their advanced crypto-protocols enable the safe and secure transmission of electronic data, ranging from e-mail to financial transactions. In addition, their work provides the underpinning for digital signatures, blockchains and crypto-currencies," like Bitcoin.
The work of Goldwasser, Micali, Rivest and Shamir, the citation adds, "is crucial to the fabric of our connected digital society. Every time we log in to social media, purchase goods online, or vote or sign electronically, we leverage the technology developed by their research."
For the jury, the rise of today's digital age could never have happened without techniques that ensure the secure exchange, use and storage of information. Cryptography is an "invisible" technology that is nonetheless indispensable for today's society. Over the space of four decades, the new laureates have not only laid the foundations of this complex field, but have also continued to enlarge it with breakthroughs that exploit the possibilities of the vast wealth of information now at our command, the famous Big Data, or have driven the development of potentially world-changing technologies like crypto-currencies.
"Human societies have always needed secure communication," the jury remarks, and this need has become increasingly acute. The design of openly available communication protocols accordingly represents "a great research challenge, which was tackled superbly by the awardees."
From BBVA Foundation
View Full Article
No entries found