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Leonard Adleman
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Leonard Adleman

Co-inventor of RSA encryption and pioneer of DNA computing

31 December 1945 United States Verified by our editors
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80 yrs
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Leonard Adleman is an American computer scientist who co-invented the RSA public-key cryptosystem and in 1994 showed that DNA molecules could be used to solve a computational problem. He shared the 2002 Turing Award with Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir.

Biography

Education

Adleman grew up in San Francisco and studied mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in 1976 under Manuel Blum.

RSA

At MIT he worked with Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir, at first trying to break each system they proposed. The successful scheme, RSA, was published in 1977–78 and its security rests on the difficulty of factoring large numbers.

Computer viruses

In 1983 his student Fred Cohen demonstrated a self-replicating program, and Adleman suggested calling it a “computer virus”.

DNA computing

In 1994 at the University of Southern California, Adleman used strands of DNA in a test tube to solve a small version of the Hamiltonian path problem, founding the field of DNA computing. He has also worked in number theory and immunology.

Timeline

  1. 1945

    Born in San Francisco, California, United States

  2. 1976

    PhD from UC Berkeley

  3. 1977

    RSA with Rivest and Shamir

  4. 1980

    Joins the University of Southern California

  5. 1983

    Names the computer virus

  6. 1994

    First DNA computation

  7. 2002

    Turing Award

Notable works

  • 1994

    Molecular Computation of Solutions to Combinatorial Problems Paper

    Science.

Awards and honours

  • Paris Kanellakis Award

    1996

  • Turing Award

    2002

Did you know?

  1. 1

    He was a mathematical adviser on the 1992 film Sneakers.

  2. 2

    The “A” in RSA stands for Adleman.

  3. 3

    He coined the term “computer virus”.

Connections

Related people

Frequently asked

Who is Leonard Adleman?

Leonard Adleman is an American computer scientist who co-invented the RSA public-key cryptosystem and in 1994 showed that DNA molecules could be used to solve a computational problem. He shared the 2002 Turing Award with Ron Rivest and Adi Shamir.

How old is Leonard Adleman?

Leonard Adleman is 80 years old, born on 31 December 1945 in San Francisco, California, United States.

Where is Leonard Adleman from?

Leonard Adleman was born in San Francisco, California, United States.

What is Leonard Adleman known for?

Leonard Adleman is best known for RSA (the “A”); DNA computing; coining the term “computer virus”; Turing Award 2002.

What awards has Leonard Adleman received?

Notable honours include Paris Kanellakis Award (1996), Turing Award (2002).

References

  1. Leonard Adleman — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Leonard Adleman — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Official website. adleman.usc.edu. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Leonard Adleman (Q918650) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

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

External links

Official website Website Wikipedia
Filed under CryptographyDNA computingRSATuring Award Computer ScientistMathematicianProfessor

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“Leonard Adleman.” TrackFame, last updated 4 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/leonard-adleman

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