Malcolm J. Williamson

Who is Malcolm J. Williamson?

Malcolm John Williamson is a British mathematician and cryptographer. In 1974 he developed what is now known as Diffie–Hellman key exchange. He was then working at GCHQ and was therefore unable to publicize his research as his work was classified. Martin Hellman, who independently developed the key exchange at the same time, received credit for the discovery until Williamson's research was declassified by the British government in 1997.

Williamson studied at Manchester Grammar School, winning first prize in the 1968 British Mathematical Olympiad. He also won a Silver prize at the 1967 International Mathematical Olympiad in Cetinje, Yugoslavia and a Gold prize at the 1968 International Mathematical Olympiad in Moscow. He read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1971. After a year at Liverpool University, he joined GCHQ, and worked there until 1982.

From 1985 to 1989 Williamson worked at Nicolet Instruments in Madison, Wisconsin where he was the primary author on two digital hearing aid patents.