Record

Authorised form of nameShannon; Claude Elwood (1916 - 2001)
Dates1916 - 2001
NationalityAmerican
Place of birthGaylord, Michigan, USA
Date of birth30/04/1916
Date of death24/02/2001
ActivityEducation:
State school, Gaylord; University of Michigan (1936, BSc Electrical Engineering and Mathematics); MIT (1940, Masters)
Career:
Worked at MIT and Bell Telephone Laboratories on telephone systems and established the binary system; developed a digital encryption system, used by Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt; wrote the landmark paper 'A mathematical theory of communication' (published 1948); Visiting Professor, MIT (1956); Donner Professor of Science, MIT (1957-1978); suffered from Alzheimer's Disease
Membership categoryForeign Member
Date of election20/06/1991
Age at election75
RelationshipsGrandson of an inventor; distant cousin of Thomas Edison; married (1939) Mary Elizabeth; one son, one daughter
SourceSources:
Obituaries: Guardian (08 March 2001); Times, Daily Telegraph (12 March 2001); Nature vol 410 p 768 (12 April 2001)
CodeNA5986
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
EC/1991/44Shannon, Claude Elwood: certificate of election to the Royal Society1987
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    Browse the records of some of our collections, which cover all branches of science and date from the 12th century onwards. These include the published works of Fellows of the Royal Society, personal papers of eminent scientists, letters and manuscripts sent to the Society or presented at meetings, and administrative records documenting the Society's activities since our foundation in 1660.

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