Bio


Martin E. Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University and is affiliated with the university's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). His most recent work, "Rethinking National Security," identifies a number of questionable assumptions that are largely taken as axiomatic truths. A key part of that work brings a risk informed framework to a potential failure of nuclear deterrence and then finds surprising ways to reduce the risk. His earlier work included co-inventing public key cryptography, the technology that underlies the secure portion of the Internet. His many honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering and receiving (jointly with his colleague Whit Diffie) the million dollar ACM Turing Award, the top prize in computer science. In 2016, he and his wife of fifty years published "A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home & Peace on the Planet," providing a “unified field theory” for peace by illuminating the connections between nuclear war, conventional war, interpersonal war, and war within our own psyches.

Honors & Awards


  • A. M. Turing Award, ACM (2015)
  • Member, National Inventor's Hall of Fame (2011)
  • Hamming Medal, IEEE (2010)
  • Member, National Academy of Engineering (2002)
  • International Fellow, Marconi Society (2000)
  • Pioneer Award, Electronic Frontier Foundation (1994)
  • Outstanding Professor, Stanford Society of Chicano and Latino Engineers (1989)
  • Outstanding Professor, Stanford Society of Black Scientists and Engineers (1989)

Program Affiliations


  • Science, Technology and Society

All Publications


  • Cybersecurity, Nuclear Security, Alan Turing, and Illogical Logic COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Hellman, M. E. 2017; 60 (12): 52–59

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3104985

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417206400016

  • Cybersecurity, Nuclear Security, Alan Turing, and Illogical Logic Hellman, M. E., ACM ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY. 2016: 1–2
  • How risky is nuclear optimism? BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS Hellman, M. E. 2011; 67 (2): 47-56
  • RESPONSES TO NISTS PROPOSAL COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Rivest, R. L., HELLMAN, M. E., Anderson, J. C., Lyons, J. W. 1992; 35 (7): 41-54
  • TIME MEMORY PROCESSOR TRADE-OFFS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY AMIRAZIZI, H. R., HELLMAN, M. E. 1988; 34 (3): 505-512
  • SCIENTISTS MUST HELP STOP THE ARMS-RACE (REPRINTED FROM BREAKTHROUGH EMERGING NEW THINKING, 1988) SCIENTIST Kapitza, S. P., HELLMAN, M. E. 1988; 2 (2): 22-22
  • ON SECRET SHARING SYSTEMS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY KARNIN, E. D., Greene, J. W., HELLMAN, M. E. 1983; 29 (1): 35-41
  • THE LARGEST SUPER-INCREASING SUBSET OF A RANDOM SET IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY KARNIN, E. D., HELLMAN, M. E. 1983; 29 (1): 146-148
  • ANOTHER CRYPTANALYTIC ATTACK ON A CRYPTOSYSTEM FOR MULTIPLE COMMUNICATION INFORMATION PROCESSING LETTERS HELLMAN, M. E. 1981; 12 (4): 182-183
  • ON THE SECURITY OF MULTIPLE ENCRYPTION COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Merkle, R. C., HELLMAN, M. E. 1981; 24 (7): 465-467
  • ON MULTIPLE ENCRYPTION SECURITY - REPLY COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Merkle, R. C., HELLMAN, M. E. 1981; 24 (11): 776-776
  • REPORT OF THE PUBLIC CRYPTOGRAPHY STUDY-GROUP ACADEME-BULLETIN OF THE AAUP Baum, W. A., Heyman, I. M., BRANDIN, D. H., Buck, R. C., DAVIDA, G. I., Handelman, G., HELLMAN, M. E., Kaplan, W., Schwartz, D. C. 1981; 67 (6): 372-379
  • A CRYPTANALYTIC TIME-MEMORY TRADE-OFF IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY HELLMAN, M. E. 1980; 26 (4): 401-406
  • PRIVACY AND AUTHENTICATION - INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGRAPHY PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE Diffie, W., HELLMAN, M. E. 1979; 67 (3): 397-427
  • CONVOLUTIONAL ENCODING FOR WYNER WIRETAP CHANNEL IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY Verriest, E., HELLMAN, M. E. 1979; 25 (2): 234-236
  • FOILING COMPUTER CRIME .1. DES WILL BE TOTALLY INSECURE WITHIN 10 YEARS IEEE SPECTRUM HELLMAN, M. E. 1979; 16 (7): 32-39
  • MATHEMATICS OF PUBLIC-KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN HELLMAN, M. E. 1979; 241 (2): 146-?
  • GAUSSIAN WIRE-TAP CHANNEL IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY LEUNGYANCHEONG, S. K., HELLMAN, M. E. 1978; 24 (4): 451-456
  • HIDING INFORMATION AND SIGNATURES IN TRAPDOOR KNAPSACKS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY Merkle, R. C., HELLMAN, M. E. 1978; 24 (5): 525-530
  • IMPROVED ALGORITHM FOR COMPUTING LOGARITHMS OVER GF(P) AND ITS CRYPTOGRAPHIC SIGNIFICANCE IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY POHLIG, S. C., HELLMAN, M. E. 1978; 24 (1): 106-110
  • EXHAUSTIVE CRYPT-ANALYSIS OF NBS DATA ENCRYPTION STANDARD COMPUTER Diffie, W., HELLMAN, M. E. 1977; 10 (6): 74-84
  • COMPUTER ENCRYPTION - KEY SIZE SCIENCE HELLMAN, M. E. 1977; 198 (4312): 8-8

    View details for Web of Science ID A1977DV64200003

    View details for PubMedID 17741872

  • NOTE ON WYNERS WIRETAP CHANNEL IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY CARLEIAL, A. B., HELLMAN, M. E. 1977; 23 (3): 387-390
  • EXTENSION OF SHANNON THEORY APPROACH TO CRYPTOGRAPHY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY HELLMAN, M. E. 1977; 23 (3): 289-294
  • CONCERNING A BOUND ON UNDETECTED ERROR PROBABILITY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY LEUNGYANCHEONG, S. K., HELLMAN, M. E. 1976; 22 (2): 235-237
  • OPTIMAL FINITE MEMORY LEARNING ALGORITHMS FOR FINITE SAMPLE PROBLEM INFORMATION AND CONTROL COVER, T. M., Freedman, M. A., HELLMAN, M. E. 1976; 30 (1): 49-85
  • NEW DIRECTIONS IN CRYPTOGRAPHY IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY Diffie, W., HELLMAN, M. E. 1976; 22 (6): 644-654
  • CONVOLUTIONAL SOURCE ENCODING IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY HELLMAN, M. E. 1975; 21 (6): 651-656
  • ERROR DETECTION IN PRESENCE OF SYNCHRONIZATION LOSS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS HELLMAN, M. E. 1975; CO23 (5): 538-539
  • TREE CODING WITH A FIDELITY CRITERION IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY DAVIS, C. R., HELLMAN, M. E. 1975; 21 (4): 373-378
  • BISTABLE BEHAVIOR OF ALOHA-TYPE SYSTEMS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS CARLEIAL, A. B., HELLMAN, M. E. 1975; CO23 (4): 401-410
  • FINITE-MEMORY ALGORITHMS FOR ESTIMATING MEAN OF A GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY HELLMAN, M. E. 1974; 20 (3): 382-384
  • USING NATURAL REDUNDANCY FOR ERROR DETECTION IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMMUNICATIONS HELLMAN, M. E. 1974; CO22 (10): 1690-1693