Today in Technology History
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April 30
On April 30, 1916, Claude Elwood Shannon was born. Shannon is almost unknown to the general public even though his theoretical research laid the foundation for today's communication and computing technology.
Shannon, a distant relative of Thomas Edison, experimented with newfangled radio equipment as a boy. He entered college at age 16, studying both mathematics and electrical engineering. In a single year (1940) he received a Ph.D. in the former and a master's degree in the latter.
The next year, he began working at Bell Labs where he helped design anti-aircraft weapons during World War II. His greatest achievement came after the war, in 1948, when he published a pioneering paper, "The Mathematical Theory of Communication."
Shannon is known as the "Father of Information Theory" because today's telephone, computer and Internet technology depend on the principles he first developed in that paper. He showed that all information can be expressed in ones and zeros, and he explained how to adjust for the errors (called "noise") caused by communicating over imperfect wires. The terminology he suggested (including the word "bit," which he coined as a contraction of "binary digit") is still in use.
His unquenchable curiosity led him to explore several related fields, including cryptography and artificial intelligence. Once, he invented a strange (and useless) computer that operated entirely in Roman numerals.
Dr. Shannon died just two months ago -- on February 24, 2001 -- after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.
Related links:
Click here to read the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Shannon.
Click here for a Bell Labs obituary for Shannon.
This page explains information theory and gives interesting background on Shannon and his work.
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