Claude Shannon

Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory".^[1][2]

Shannon was famous for having founded information theory with a landmark paper that he published in 1948. He is perhaps equally well known for founding both the digital computer and digital circuit design theory in 1937, when, as a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he wrote his thesis demonstrating that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical, numerical relationship.^[3] Shannon contributed to the field of cryptanalysis for national defense during World War II, including his basic work on codebreaking and secure telecommunications.

Contents

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• 1Biography
  • 1.1Boolean theory and beyond
  • 1.2Wartime research
  • 1.3Postwar contributions
  • 1.4Hobbies and inventions
  • 1.5Legacy and tributes
• 2Other work
  • 2.1Shannon's mouse
  • 2.2Shannon's computer chess program
  • 2.3The Las Vegas connection: information theory and its applications to game theory
  • 2.4Shannon's maxim
• 3Commemorations
  • 3.1Shannon Centenary
  • 3.2Coding & Cryptography Research Group, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• 4Awards and honors list
• 5See also
• 6References
• 7Further reading
• 8External links