Jessica Fridrich

Speedcubing At the age of 16, in March 1981, Fridrich saw a Rubik's Cube for the first time. These cubes weren't immediately purchasable in the context of communist Czechoslovakia. However, Fridrich managed to obtain one in July when a French family visiting the area brought it along. Following the acquisition of the Cube, Fridrich delved into learning a Layer by Layer technique from a Czech publication. By the time September rolled around, she had reached an average solving time of roughly 1 minute.

In May 1982, the national championship occurred, coinciding with Fridrich's average solve time hovering at approximately 25 seconds. Out of the participants, five cubers, including Mirek Goljan, advanced to the finals. In this arena, Fridrich clinched victory in both the initial and second rounds, whereas Goljan secured the triumph in the third and final round. The specific time of 23.55 seconds during the second round paved the way for Fridrich to secure the top spot. She competed in Rubik's Cube World Championship in Budapest in 1982 in which she finished 10th with the best time of 29.11 seconds

Career Jessica Fridrich works as a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton University and specializes in digital watermarking and forensics. She received her MS degree in applied mathematics from the Czech Technical University in Prague in 1987, and her PhD in systems science from Binghamton University in 1995.