It is with great regret that we share the recent passing of UCLA mathematics alumnus and distinguished mathematician Dr. Peter Montgomery at age 72.
“Before joining UCLA, Peter worked for the System Development Corporation for many years as a programmer implementing algorithms for the CDC 7600 and PDP series of computers, including the implementation of algorithms for multi-precision arithmetic that led to the invention of what is now known as Montgomery multiplication.
He earned his PhD in mathematics from UCLA in 1992, under the supervision of David Cantor. Peter is particularly known for his contributions to the elliptic curve method of factorization, which include a method for speeding up the second stage of algebraic-group factorization algorithms using FFT techniques for fast polynomial evaluation at equally spaced points.This was also the subject of his dissertation.
In 1998, Peter went to Microsoft Research to join the cryptography group, where he worked until his retirement in 2014.”
To learn more about his contributions, read here.
