Claude Shannon
1916–2001, Petoskey, Michigan, United States, Medford, Massachusetts, United States
Foundations of mathematicsApplied and computational mathematicsProbability and statistics
American mathematician and engineer who founded information theory and formalized the mathematical theory of communication.
Claude Shannon showed that information can be measured mathematically and that communication systems have precise capacity limits. His 1948 paper introduced entropy, channel capacity, and the source-channel framework. He also used Boolean algebra to analyze relay circuits, helping create digital circuit theory.
Workplaces: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
United States