As part of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s 10x10 lecture series, marking International Year of Mathematics, Dillon Mayhew (right) presented a lecture on Codes and ciphers – the mathematics of the internet in Rotorua on 20 June 2013.
Dillon Mayhew is both a mathematician at Victoria University and a musician. His mathematical interest lies in abstract mathematical constructs called matroids and you can listen to a previous Our Changing World interview with him here. He is also a French horn player and is a contract musician with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Ruth Beran meets him before a rehearsal to find out more about codes and ciphers, and he explains how we can transmit huge volumes of information across the internet securely and why prime numbers are important for securely encrypting personal data.
