Special Section on Cryptography

Guest editorial

Michael Willett received his Ph.D. in mathematics from North Carolina State University in 1971. Since 1972 he has been on the faculty of the Department of Mathematics of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His Ph.D. dissertation dealt with the generation of involuntary matrices over finite fields, which has application in several classical cryptographic schemas.

He has been interested in all aspects of finite field theory and the use of finite fields in communication system design. His study of linear recursions over finite fields led to an interest in cyclic and algebraic coding theory. He recently has done work in the design and cryptanalysis of public key cryptographic scheme, and, in particular, he has completed an extensive computer analysis of knapsack-based public key schemes. In 1978–1979. Dr. Willett was a Visiting Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Virginia, during which time he studied the feasibility of using probabilistic automata in a measure of complexity for cryptographic systems.

Professor Willett has organized sessions on cryptography for several national conferences in the United States in addition to his being a frequentnly invited speaker himself on the subject of public key cryptography.