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Dr. Merkle received his B.A. in Computer Science, from U.C. Berkeley, in 1974, his M.S. in Computer Science, at U.C. Berkeley, in 1977, and his Ph.D., in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford, in 1979. Thesis: Secrecy, authentication, and public key systems.

His current research interest is molecular manufacturing (also called nanotechnology). The central objective of molecular manufacturing is the design, modeling, and manufacture of systems that can inexpensively fabricate most products that can be specified in atomic detail.

This would include, for example, molecular logic elements connected in complex patterns to form molecular computers, molecular robotic arms, or Stewart platforms (e.g., positional devices) able to position individual atoms or clusters of atoms under programmatic control (useful if they wish to make molecular computers and other molecular manufacturing systems), and a wide range of other molecular devices.