Richard Leibler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Arthur Leibler (born March 18, 1914 in Chicago , Illinois , † October 25, 2003 in Reston , Virginia ) was an American mathematician and cryptologist . Among other things, he worked for the National Security Agency . The Kullback-Leibler divergence is named after Solomon Kullback and Richard Leibler . He is an honorary member of the American Mathematical Society .

Life

After studying mathematics, Leibler received his master's degree from Northwestern University , where he also received his bachelor's degree . He received his Ph. D. from the University of Illinois on June 15, 1939 . His thesis topic was " Analytic theory of non-linear differential systems whose associated systems are of Fuchsian type ", his doctoral supervisor was Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky (1901–1973). After a short period as a teacher, he joined the Navy, where he took part in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during World War II as an "aviation ordinance officer" . After the war he continued to work in the Navy and in industry. From 1946 to 1948 he worked for the von Neumann Computer Project at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University by John von Neumann .

Leibler then worked for the NSA, where he was employed from 1953 in the Research and Development Organization (research and development department). During his first years in the Agency, he worked with computer pioneers to develop programs and applications for the newly developed computers. During this time he also wrote theoretical papers that helped the NSA's cryptanalysts to decrypt Soviet messages in the VENONA project .

His collaboration with Solomon Kullback resulted in a new method, the Kullback-Leibler divergence , to measure similarities between populations .

In 1957 Leibler became head of the Mathematical Research Department and a year later he became the deputy director of the Communications Research Division at the Princeton Institute for Defense Investigation. In 1962 he was promoted to director of the department. The "Communications Research Division" was founded as a think tank for mathematicians and cryptologists as a result of a study. Although the NSA kept the think tank small in its beginnings, Leibler managed to get important projects entrusted to it.

In 1977 Leibler returned to the NSA to head the “Office of Research” in the “Research and Engineering Organization” . Three years later, in 1980, he retired and received the Exceptional Civilian Service Award .

Until his death, he was president of the consulting firm Data Handling Inc.

On October 25, 2003 Richard Leibler died of heart disease in Reston. He left a wife, Eleanor, and two children.

Fonts

  • Analytic theory of non-linear differential systems whose associated systems are of Fuchsian type (1939)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.ams.org/notices/199711/from.pdf
  2. ↑ http://www.math.uiuc.edu/GraduateProgram/phd_defense_alpha.html ( Memento from June 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ http://www.math.ias.edu/people/past-alpha?letter=L
  4. ^ Excerpt from the book "Model Based Inference in the Life Sciences: A Primer on Evidence" in a different form

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leibler, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leibler, Richard Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American cryptologist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2003
Place of death Reston , Virginia