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Neal Koblitz was a student of Nicholas M. Katz, under whom he received his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton in 1974. He spent the year 1974 -75 and the spring semester 1978 in Moscow, where he did research in p -adic analysis and also translated Yu. I. Manin's "Course in Mathematical Logic" (GTM 53). He taught at Harvard from 1975 to 1979, and since 1979 has been at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published papers in number theory, algebraic geometry, and p-adic analysis, and he is the author of "p-adic Analysis: A Short Course on Recent Work" (Cambridge University Press and GTM 97: "Introduction to Elliptic Curves and Modular Forms (Springer-Verlag).
About the author
Neal Koblitz is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in the Department of Mathematics. He is also an adjunct professor with the Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research at the University of Waterloo. He is the creator of hyperelliptic curve cryptography and the independent co-creator of elliptic curve cryptography. Professor Koblitz received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he was a Putnam Fellow, in 1969. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 under the direction of Nickolas Katz.
Summary
The first edition of this work has become the standard introduction to the theory of p-adic numbers at both the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate level.
Report
From the reviews of the second edition:
"In the second edition of this text, Koblitz presents a wide-ranging introduction to the theory of p-adic numbers and functions. ... there are some really nice exercises that allow the reader to explore the material. ... And with the exercises, the book would make a good textbook for a graduate course, provided the students have a decent background in analysis and number theory." (Donald L. Vestal, The Mathematical Association of America, April, 2011)
