My understanding of the chronology is that Whit was a bit earlier than Ron to the party, and Whit's seminal work is what inspired Ron and gang to work out RSA.
Hence I put Whit 1 'academic generation' prior because Ron's work was directly inspired by Whit's work. This is slightly different than what I'd label pure contemporary work (I don't think Ron was doing much cryptographic work before Whit's seminal papers).
My understanding of the chronology is that Whit was a bit earlier than Ron to the party, and Whit's seminal work is what inspired Ron and gang to work out RSA.
Hence I put Whit 1 'academic generation' prior because Ron's work was directly inspired by Whit's work. This is slightly different than what I'd label pure contemporary work (I don't think Ron was doing much cryptographic work before Whit's seminal papers).
Could be wrong, and again, splitting hairs.