Widely recognized as the inventor of electronic cash and as the founder and early CEO of DigiCash, its pioneering company, he has also published over 50 original scientific articles on cryptography and been awarded more than twenty related patents -- including many techniques allowing individuals to protect their own privacy. A publication resulting from his MS thesis presented the first way to secure and protect privacy of elections conducted over computer networks; since early 2000 his work has focused largely on voting systems and founded SureVote. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science, with a minor in Business Administration, from the University of California at Berkeley and taught at New York University Graduate School of Business Administration and at the University of California. He built a leading research group in cryptography at CWI in the Netherlands and also founded the International Association for Cryptographic Research.