>> Colin (guy who founded and runs tarsnap) also has won a putnam award for his work in mathematics and crypto.
Colin won the Putnam as an undergraduate student. The Putnam award is not a mathematics research award like the Fields Medal or the Abel Prize. It's a mathematics competition. As such, Colin didn't win the award for any particular work.
It's still quite impressive though. I would say Colin's work developing scrypt has more applicability to cryptography than his Putnam award.
Colin won the Putnam as an undergraduate student. The Putnam award is not a mathematics research award like the Fields Medal or the Abel Prize. It's a mathematics competition. As such, Colin didn't win the award for any particular work.
It's still quite impressive though. I would say Colin's work developing scrypt has more applicability to cryptography than his Putnam award.