Dr. Leonard Adleman

Biography

Len Adleman grew up in San Francisco, son of a technical equipment salesman and a bank teller. Inspired by the American children's science program 'Mr. Wizard', he aspired to become a chemist or doctor. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968. After graduation, he worked as a computer programmer at Bank of America until he returned to Berkeley for a Ph.D. in Computer Science, which he completed in 1976. He then worked in the Mathematics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as an instructor, eventually becoming an associate professor. In 1980, Adleman joined the University of Southern California, where he became a full professor and the Distinguished Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer Science. He is a member of several prestigious academies and received numerous awards for his contributions to cryptography and computer science, including the Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award and the IEEE Kobayashi Award. His notable work includes the invention of the RSA algorithm, foundational for internet security. In recent years, he has focused on the interface of biology and computation, developing concepts in DNA computation.

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