Awards

Distinguished Alumni Service Award - 2023

Churchill Scholar - 1983

About Antonia Wilson Bluher

Antonia W. Bluher, BS’83, enjoyed a 27-year career in math research at the National Security Agency, where she led decades of classified security projects. An advisor to many throughout her career, Bluher extensively supported her NSA colleagues and served as a mentor to undergraduates in the Director’s Summer Program at the NSA.

Although most of her work was classified, Bluher published 80 articles internal to the NSA, and a few of her unclassified papers were published in public mathematical journals. During her time at the NSA, Bluher served as president of the agency’s oldest learned society—the Crypto-Mathematics Institute. She was named the 2015 NSA Researcher of the Year, was twice awarded the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award by President Obama, and was awarded the 2022 Distinguished Presidential Rank Award by President Biden for sustained, extraordinary achievement in government.

Bluher credits IU and Professor Maynard Thompson for the opportunities presented to her as an undergraduate. As an IU student, she was able to study in a National Science Foundation-funded research program and received a Churchill Scholarship to study at Cambridge University. Ever the mentor, she continues to encourage the next generation of young people interested in the field with the advice: “keep your curiosity alive.”