Ralph C Merkle

Ralph C. Merkle is a computer scientist, researcher, and leading proponent of molecular manufacturing and nanotechnology. He was born on February 2, 1952. He studied computer science at UC Berkeley, receiving his BS in 1974, his MS in 1977 and his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1979. Merkle joined the team at Stanford for a summer in 1976 and became a doctoral candidate under Hellman the next fall. Working with Diffie and Hellman, Merkle developed the earliest public key crypto system and earned his Ph.D. in 1979 with a thesis entitled "Secrecy, authentication and public key systems." In 1980 Merkle joined Elxsi, a general purpose computer startup, where he managed their compiler group. He moved to Xerox PARC in 1988 and became intrigued by the possibilities of nanotechnology for solving many of the world's intractable problems and has been one of the field's most ardent champions. He continued this research at Zyvex as a Nanotechnology Theorist in 1999. In 2003, he became a Distinguished Professor at Georgia Tech before returning to California in 2006. He is now a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, on the faculty at Singularity University, a co-founder of the Nanofactory Collaboration, and a Director of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.