Cambridge University Institute for Advanced Study Ernst Sejersted Selmer (11 February 1920[1] – 8 November 2006) was a Norwegian mathematician, who worked in number theory, as well as a cryptologist.
As a student at the university during World War II, Selmer was involved in encrypting secret messages for the Norwegian resistance movement.
[8] Selmer arrived in January 1951 as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. where the IAS machine was being constructed for John von Neumann.
During his stay in Princeton he also met with people such as Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and his countryman Atle Selberg.
Einstein is said to have been the first person Selmer met on arrival in Princeton on a Saturday afternoon, and apparently took on the task as campus guide with open arms.
[12] At the age of mere 37 Selmer took a position of a full professor in mathematics at the University of Bergen,[13][14] which was a huge feat in 1957.
In 1962, a hotline between the Kremlin and Washington was established via the Norwegian-developed encryption equipment ETCRRM II (Electronic Teleprinter Cryptographic Regenerative Repeater Mixer) from STK.
At the University of Bergen Selmer started studying Linear Shift Registers and lectured on the subject.
One time Selmer would not want to break a deal with his daughter in favor of a meeting with Fields Medal winner Alan Baker.
Selmer was elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1961, and became a knight of the 1st class of the Order of St. Olav in 1983.
The Selmer Center held a leading position in the field of cryptography nationally and internationally, with roots going back 70 years.
Selmer's advanced research formed the basis for National Security Agency to develop modern crypto machines.