Martin Hellman, Stanford Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, was one of those awarded this year’s Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery. Named for computer science pioneer Alan Turing, the award is widely regarded as the highest distinction in Computer Science.
We spoke to Prof. Hellman at his home on Stanford University’s campus, discussing the work that led to the award, his fight for computer privacy, and the current legal feud between Apple Computer and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over backdoors into the iOS mobile operating system.