Douglas Henry Wiedemann ’75

Doug died Nov. 12, 2020, in Princeton, his longtime residence. 

Born in Milwaukee, Wis., he came from Nicolet High School to Princeton, where he earned a BSE in electrical engineering. He belonged to Campus Club. Doug possessed an exceptional gift for mathematics. After Princeton he went on to earn a master’s degree in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1977 and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, in 1986. 

As an undergraduate, Doug did summer work at the Institute for Defense Analyses 
in Princeton. Thus began his long career as 
a research staff member at the institute’s Center for Communications Research, where he remained active up until the time of his death, except for brief stints at Thinking Machines Corp. and Sun Microsystems. CCR/IDA held a one-day tribute to Doug’s work in May 2021.

Doug was well known in mathematics. The novel algorithm he developed, known as the “Wiedemann Algorithm,” has been widely used, especially in cryptographic applications. He also wrote three influential papers on Boolean functions.

Doug never married. He is greatly missed by his colleagues and family, which includes his brother and sister-in-law, Herbert P. Wiedemann MD and Patricia Barz; and 
their children, Sarah and Andrew. We share their loss.