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Dr
Hugh Williams
Algorithmic Number Theory and Cryptography
The Alberta Informatics Circle of Research
Excellence (iCORE) has committed $600,000
dollars per year for five years to establish
an iCORE Chair in Algorithmic Number Theory
and Cryptography at the University of
Calgary. Total iCORE funding of $3 million
dollars represents roughly 50 percent
of the total budget of the research group
to be developed around the Chair.
About the Research
Cryptography
is emerging as a very important high-growth
area in information and communications
technology (ICT) because it deals with
issues in communications security. In
conjunction with this iCORE Chair, Dr
Williams plans to set up a research team
in pure and applied cryptography to investigate
the high-end theoretical foundations of
communications security.
This research, which lies within the mathematical
realm, particularly number theory, is
aimed at the eventual development of protocols
that can become standards for communications
security. These standards are defined
by organizations and agencies and recognized
worldwide to ensure interoperability of
computer systems. ASCII, for example,
is a protocol that became a standard.
Dr Williams' research is specifically
aimed at the development, improvement
and implementation of mathematically based
cryptosystems, including cryptoanalysis
to test and benchmark the resulting schemes.
This latter activity is an essential component
because assuring the security of almost
any cryptosystem is both an analytic and
an empirical process involving extensive
testing.
Biographical Information
Dr Williams comes from the University
of Manitoba, where he was Associate Dean
of Science for Research and Development,
and Adjunct Professor for the Department
of Combinatorics and Optimization at the
University of Waterloo. He has an extensive
research and leadership background and
a strong international reputation for
his work in cryptography and number theory,
and is considered the top academic in
this field in Canada. He was one of the
first to use modern mathematical techniques
for securing and authenticating communication,
and has developed one of the most widely
used public key cryptosystems. He is the
recipient of numerous awards including
a Killam Fellowship, prestigious NSERC
awards and an Australian Research Council
IREX grant. He has authored over 130 referred
journal papers, 20 refereed conference
papers, 20 books or chapters, and is an
associate editor of Mathematics of
Computation.
Research Team
The Algorithmic number theory and cryptography
research group also includes senior team
member Renate Scheidler, a researcher
whose current work on secure key exchange
systems and protocols using various mathematical
devices is considered to be leading the
field. Dr Scheidler comes form the University
of Delaware, where she was Assistant Professor
in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.
An additional ten faculty members, several
postdoctoral fellows and up to fifteen
graduate students from mathematics and
statistics, computer science and electrical
engineering at the University of Calgary,
as well as from local industry partners,
are expected to be added to the team.
Related Links:
Dr Williams' Homepage
Centre for Information Security and Cryptography (CISaC)
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