"Among the first to be inspired by Diffie and Hellmanโs paper were three young mathematicians from MIT. United in their love for numbers and their urge to solve difficult problems, Ron Rivest, an assistant professor at the university, Adi Shamir, a visiting professor, and Leonard Adleman, a computer scientist at the same institute, set out to design a one-way function specifically for public key cryptography. " From the excellent "The Genesis Book"
@Aaron van Wirdum