Claude Shannon Is an American Mathematical Engineer

Claude Shannon is an American mathematical engineer and is considered "the father of information theory" (Cosmo Learning 2010). Shannon was born in the city of Gaylord, Michigan on April 30, 196 (NY 2011). Gaylord was a small town of approximately 3,000 individuals and his father was the town judge; his mother was the principal at the local town high school (NYU 2011). His mathematical and scientific ability did not necessarily come from either of his parents though his grandfather was an inventor and a farmer (2011). He invented the washing machine as well as types of farming machinery (2011).

Shannon married in 1949 and had three children with his wife. He and his family lived just a short distance- a few miles -- from MIT. He had a lifetime obsession with balance and control and it can be seen in the house that he shared with his family. Of particular interest is a chair lift that he built to take his three children down to the beach -- 600 feet down to the lakeside (NYU 2011).

Shannon is famous for founding information theory with a seminal paper that was published in 1948 (2010). In 1937, as an MIT student of 21 years of age, Shannon wrote a thesis that illustrated "that electrical application of Boolean algebra could construct and resolve any logical, numerical relationship," which founded both the digital computer and digital circuit design theory (2010).

After MIT, Shannon went on to join the staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories (NYU 2011). While he was on staff there, he came up with a theory that explained the communication of information and then worked on the problem of how to most effectively and efficiently transmit information (2011).

The mathematical theory of communication was the climax of Shannon's mathematical and engineering investigations. The concept of entropy was an important feature of Shannon's theory, which he demonstrated to be equivalent to a shortage in the information content (a degree of uncertainty) in a message (NY 2011).

Shannon's formal education started at Michigan University in 1936, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree (NYU 2011). He later went to MIT where he studied electrical engineering and mathematics. He received a master's degree and a doctorate from MIT (2011). For his master's degree, which was in electrical engineering, he applied George Boole's algebra to the problem of electrical switching (2011). During the time that Shannon was at MIT, the system for manipulating 0 and 1 was not well-known -- however, today it is the "nervous system of every computer in the world" (2011). For his doctoral degree, he applied mathematics to genetics (2011). Shannon was the recipient of a master's degree and a doctorate in 1940 (2011).

Shannon's theories that he formulated beginning in the 1940s are as relevant today as they were then (Bell-Labs 2001). "Shannon figured out the upper limits on communication rates. First in telephone channels, then in optical communications, and now in wireless, Shannon has had the utmost value in defining engineering limits we face" (2001).