Ron Rivest facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ron Rivest
Rivest in 2012
Born	(1947-05-06) May 6, 1947 (age 78) Schenectady, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Yale University (BA) Stanford University (PhD)
Known for	Public-key RSA, RC2, RC4, RC5, RC6 MD2, MD4, MD5, MD6, Ring signature
Awards	Paris Kanellakis Award (1996) Turing Award (2002) Marconi Prize (2007) BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2017) National Inventors Hall of Fame (2018)
Scientific career
Fields	Algorithms Cryptography Machine learning Election security
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis	Analysis of associative retrieval algorithms (1974)
Doctoral advisor	Robert W. Floyd
Doctoral students	Avrim Blum Benny Chor Sally Goldman Burt Kaliski Andrea LaPaugh Anna Lysyanskaya Ron Pinter Robert Schapire Alan Sherman Mona Singh

Ronald Linn Rivest (/rɪˈvɛst/; born May 6, 1947) is an American computer scientist. He is famous for his work in cryptography, which is about keeping information secret and secure. He also works on algorithms, machine learning, and making sure elections are safe.

Rivest is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He helped create the RSA algorithm. This is a very important way to encrypt (or scramble) information. He also invented other encryption methods like RC2, RC4, and RC5. RC stands for "Rivest Cipher." He also made special functions called MD2, MD4, MD5, and MD6. These help check if data has been changed.

Education and Early Career

Learning at University

Ronald Rivest went to Yale University and earned a degree in mathematics in 1969. Later, he got his Ph.D. (a high-level degree) in computer science. He studied at Stanford University and finished in 1974. His research there was supervised by Robert W. Floyd.

Working at MIT

At MIT, Rivest is part of the Theory of Computation Group. He also started the Cryptography and Information Security Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He helped start companies like RSA Data Security, Verisign, and Peppercoin. Many students have studied under him for their doctoral degrees.

Key Research and Discoveries

Making Information Secure: Cryptography

Rivest is best known for his work in cryptography. In 1978, he, along with Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman, published the RSA cryptosystem. This was a huge step forward for public-key cryptography. It made it possible to send secret messages over public networks. For this important work, the three inventors won the 2002 Turing Award. This is one of the top awards in computer science.

They also came up with the idea of Alice and Bob. These are fictional characters used to explain how cryptographic systems work. Rivest also helped create homomorphic encryption. This allows people to work with encrypted data without decrypting it first.

Rivest also helped invent ring signatures. These are special digital signatures that keep the signer's identity private within a group. He designed the MD4 and MD5 cryptographic hash functions. These are like digital fingerprints for data. He also created a series of symmetric key encryption methods. These include RC2, RC4, RC5, and RC6.

Smart Ways to Solve Problems: Algorithms

In 1973, Rivest and his team found a way to quickly find the middle number in a list. This method is called the median of medians. It is still taught in computer science classes today. He also helped create the Floyd–Rivest algorithm. This is another fast way to find specific items in a list.

His early research also looked at hash tables. These are like special lists that help computers find information very quickly. He also worked on how to organize lists so they are easy to search.

Rivest is also a co-author of Introduction to Algorithms. This is a very famous textbook about algorithms. It is used by students all over the world.

Teaching Computers to Learn: Machine Learning

Rivest has also worked on machine learning. This is about teaching computers to learn from data. He studied how hard it is for computers to make good decision trees. These are like flowcharts that help computers make choices. He also looked at how difficult it can be to train neural networks. These are computer systems inspired by the human brain.

Despite these challenges, he found ways to help computers learn efficiently. He developed methods for computers to learn decision lists and finite automata.

Keeping Elections Safe: Election Security

More recently, Rivest has focused on election security. He believes that election results should rely on physical records. This way, hidden changes to voting software cannot secretly change the outcome.

He helped improve systems that protect voter privacy. He also invented the ThreeBallot voting system in 2006. This system uses paper ballots and lets voters check their votes. He made this system available to everyone for free. He also helped develop the Scantegrity system. This system adds security to optical scan voting machines.

Awards and Recognition

Ronald Rivest has received many honors for his work. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Along with Adi Shamir and Len Adleman, he won the 2000 IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award. They also shared the Turing Award in 2002. Rivest has received honorary degrees from universities. In 2007, he was named a Marconi Fellow. In 2015, he became an Institute Professor at MIT.

Selected Publications

Rivest's publications include:

Algorithms

A2.	See also "Algorithm 489: the algorithm SELECT—for finding the th smallest of elements", p. 173, .

Cryptography

Learning

Elections and voting

Personal Life

Ronald Rivest's son is Chris Rivest. Chris is also an entrepreneur and has started companies.

See also

In Spanish: Ronald Rivest para niños