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Claude Shannon

1916–2001 · Mathematician and engineer

Portrait of Claude Shannon
Unknown authorUnknown author · Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Bio

American mathematician and engineer whose 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication founded information theory, defining information in bits and establishing limits on data compression and error-free transmission. His earlier master's thesis applied Boolean algebra to electrical circuits, providing the logical basis for digital circuit design. He spent much of his career at Bell Labs and MIT.