The 1985 Laureates / Basic Sciences Category / Mathematical Sciences (including Pure Mathematics)

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Claude Elwood Shannon

U.S.A. / April 30, 1916-2001
Information Scientist; Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The creator of information theory. In the late 1940s, he established a mathematical method to analyze the quantity, reliability, transformation, and equivalence relations of information, and laid the foundation for remarkable developments in today's telecommunications.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

1936
Graduated from University of Michigan, Bachelor of Science
1940-1941
National Research, Princeton University
1941-1958
Research mathematician at The Bell Telephone Laboratories
1954
Master of Science (hon.), Yale University
1956
Visiting professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (electrical communication)
1957-present
Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (communication sciences and mathematics)
1958-present
Donner Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (science)
1961
Doctor of Science, University of Michigan
1962
Doctor of Science, Princeton University

AWARDS AND HONORS

1940
American Institute of Electrical Engineers Award
1949
Morris Liebmann Memorial Award
1955
Stuart Ballantine Medal, Franklin Institute
1956
Research Corporation Award

MAJOR WORKS

1948
A Mathematical Theory of Communication (with Warren Weaver)
1949
Communication in the Presence of Noise
1956
The Zero Error Capacity of Noisy Channels
1956
Automata Studies (with John McCarthy)
1957
Certain Results in Coding Theory for Noisy Channels
1957
Geometrische Deutung einige Ergebnisse bei der Berechnung der Kanalkapazitat
1959
Probability of Error for Optional Codes in a Gaussian Channel
1960
Coding Theorems for a Discrete Source with a Fidelity criterion
1961
Two-way Communication Channels