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by Chris Christensen
Year of Award: 2008
Award: Carl B. Allendoerfer
Publication Information: Mathematics Magazine, vol. 80, (2007), pp. 247-273
Summary: The history of three Polish mathematicians who were instrumental in breaking Enigma, and the mathematics behind their work.
About the Author: Chris Christensen is a professor of mathematics at Northern Kentucky University. His mathematical genealogy is a long line of algebraic geometers; he is a student of Professor S. S. Abhyankar. He became hooked on cryptology when, after running out of (good) Tom Clancy books, he read the novel Enigma by Robert Harris – a story set among the World War II British codebreakers at Bletchley Park.