Announcements

Coding Theory and Data Integrity -- Inaugural Program of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences, National University of Singapore

The National University of Singapore has recently formed the new Institute for Mathematical Sciences, whose mission is to provide for an international center of excellence for mathematical research, focusing on fundamental issues in and applications of the mathematical sciences, as well as to promote interest in those fields and in multi-disciplinary research within Singapore and the region.

In each year the Institute will organize two programs, each lasting up to six months, in accordance with the trends of development in the mathematical sciences and with the interests of scientists in Singapore and the region. Senior and young mathematical scientists as well as graduate students are expected to visit the Institute for periods of varying lengths, ranging from a month to six months, and to interact with each other through workshops, seminars and informal discussions.

The inaugural program of the Institute will be held during July - December 2001 on

Coding Theory and Data Integrity.

The program will be divided into three parts, each lasting six to eight weeks:

Mathematical Foundations (computational number theory, algebraic curves, etc.)
Coding and Cryptography (constructions of codes and cryptosystems, etc.)
Applied Cryptology (implementations, commercial applications, etc.)

For each part of the program, a one-week tutorial and a one-week workshop will be held.

Organizing Committee: Shih-Ping Chan, Robert Deng, San Ling, Harald Niederreiter (Chair), Eiji Okamoto, Igor E. Shparlinski, Neil J.A. Sloane, Chaoping Xing

The Institute solicits applications for membership for participation in the above program. A limited number of fellowships, covering travel and living expenses, are available to young mathematical scientists. Applications should be received at least three (3) months before the commencement of membership.

Further information and application forms are available from http://www.ims.nus.edu.sg/ or by writing to the Secretary, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 2 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117543, Republic of Singapore.

Honorary Doctorate for Bob Blakley

Professor Bob Blakley will be awarded an honorary doctorate from Queensland University of Technology in Australia on Feburary 13, 2001 in recognition of his research in the area of information security.

NESSIE - Review of Cryptographic Primitives

NESSIE (New European Schemes for Signature, Integrity, and Encryption) is a project within the Information Societies Technology (IST) Programme of the European Commission. It is a 3-year project, which started on 1^{st
January 2000. Further information about NESSIE is available at
http://cryptonessie.org.}

The main objective of the project is to put forward a portfolio of strong cryptographic primitives for a number of different platforms. These primitives have been obtained after an open call and are being evaluated using a transparent and open process. They should be the building blocks of the future standard protocols for the information society.

39 primitives have been submitted (both symmetric and asymmetric). They are available at http://cryptonessie.org. The project would like to invite comments on these primitives; an electronic discussion forum has been established to facilitate open discussions.

A 2-day open workshop has been planned for the first half of September 2001. Details will be available shortly on the NESSIE website.