Claude Shannon

Claude Shannon (1916-2001) was a theoretical mathematician and electrical engineer who is considered by many to be one of the foundational researches in computer and communications design. His first influential publication was his M.I.T. master's thesis of 1938; it was followed by a span of intensively productive years in research at Bell Laboratories, after which Shannon returned to M.I.T. as a professor.

In the 1940's during World War II, Shannon performed classified research for the U. S. government on cryptography issues; this period culminated in a seminal two-part paper, published in 1948 in the Bell Systems Journal, which launched the field of information theory. Information theory was devoted to messages and signals using techniques drawn from the mathematical science of probability; it linked discrete and continuous math branches in ways that turned out to be highly useful later on in multiple areas of science. Shannon's work is regarded as highly influential, not just in the fields of communications and computers, but also on thinking about biological processes and linguistics.

In addition the solid recognition in the engineering world of his time, Shannon grew into a figure of some public and popular acclaim by the time of his retirement. An enormous number of resources exist about him on the web, and also in the deep web (i.e., online resources which must be paid for). This article will not attempt to create yet another biography of Claude Shannon, but it will provide pointers to multiple existing biographies which already describe his life in great detail. This article will try to outline his seminal accomplishments and provide pointers to additional reading on each topic.

Shannon's publications

See our list of Shannon's publications.