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Adi Shamir
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Adi Shamir

Israeli cryptographer, the “S” in RSA

6 July 1952 Israel Verified by our editors
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Age
74 yrs
Birthday in 242 days
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2
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Honours
3
Most recent 2017
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Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a co-inventor of the RSA encryption system. He also invented Shamir’s secret sharing and, with Eli Biham, made differential cryptanalysis public. He shared the 2002 Turing Award with Rivest and Adleman.

Biography

Education

Shamir studied mathematics at Tel Aviv University and earned his PhD in computer science at the Weizmann Institute in 1977. He then spent time at the University of Warwick and MIT.

RSA

At MIT in 1977 he worked with Ron Rivest and Leonard Adleman on public-key encryption. Shamir and Rivest proposed candidate systems while Adleman tried to break them, until RSA emerged.

More inventions

In 1979 he published secret sharing, a way to split a secret among several people so that only a group of them can recover it. He co-invented the Fiat–Shamir identification scheme and, with Eli Biham in the late 1980s, differential cryptanalysis, a powerful method for attacking ciphers. He has found attacks on many encryption systems.

Weizmann Institute

Shamir is a professor at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. His honours include the Israel Prize (2008) and the Japan Prize (2017).

Timeline

  1. 1952

    Born in Tel Aviv, Israel

  2. 1977

    PhD from the Weizmann Institute; co-invents RSA at MIT

  3. 1979

    Shamir’s secret sharing

  4. 1986

    Fiat–Shamir scheme

  5. 1990

    Differential cryptanalysis with Eli Biham

  6. 2002

    Turing Award

  7. 2008

    Israel Prize

  8. 2017

    Japan Prize

Notable works

  • 1979

    How to Share a Secret Paper

  • 1990

    Differential Cryptanalysis of DES-like Cryptosystems Paper

    With Eli Biham.

Awards and honours

  • Turing Award

    2002

  • Israel Prize

    2008

  • Japan Prize

    2017

Did you know?

  1. 1

    The “S” in RSA stands for Shamir.

  2. 2

    Secret sharing is used to protect cryptocurrency keys.

  3. 3

    He has demonstrated attacks that steal keys by listening to the sounds a computer makes.

Connections

Also born on 6 July

Frequently asked

Who is Adi Shamir?

Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer at the Weizmann Institute of Science and a co-inventor of the RSA encryption system. He also invented Shamir’s secret sharing and, with Eli Biham, made differential cryptanalysis public. He shared the 2002 Turing Award with Rivest and Adleman.

How old is Adi Shamir?

Adi Shamir is 74 years old, born on 6 July 1952 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Where is Adi Shamir from?

Adi Shamir was born in Tel Aviv, Israel.

What is Adi Shamir known for?

Adi Shamir is best known for RSA; Shamir’s secret sharing; differential cryptanalysis; Turing Award 2002.

What awards has Adi Shamir received?

Notable honours include Turing Award (2002), Israel Prize (2008), Japan Prize (2017).

References

  1. Adi Shamir — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Adi Shamir — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Adi Shamir (Q320624) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Adi Shamir”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Wikipedia
Filed under CryptographyIsraelRSATuring Award Computer ScientistCryptographerProfessor

About this profile

Cite this page

“Adi Shamir.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/adi-shamir

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