Biography of Claude Shannon

Claude Elwood Shannon was born on April 30, 1916 in Petoskey, Michigan, United States. He was an American mathematician, computer scientist, cryptographer and electrical engineer. His father’s name was Claude Elwood Shannon Sr. He was a judge and also a businessman. Her mother’s name was Mabel Shannon and she was a language teacher later she also worked as a principal. Shonnon’s family lived in Gaylord, Michigan, and Claude Shannon Jr. was born in the hospital near his home. Shannon spent 16 years of her life there.

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He graduated from Gaylord High School in 1932. He was good at math and science. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1936. Shannon married a wealthy Jew Norma Levor in 1940. After a year of marriage the two separated and Norma later married Ben Barzman. Shannon met a girl named Marry Elizabeth Moore (Betty Shannon) and she was a digital analyst at Bell Laboratories. In 1949, the two got married.

He was very curious about mechanical and electrical things. He made certain devices at home such as model airplanes, model radio-controlled boats, etc.

Career

After graduating, he got a job as a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he worked with Vannevar Bush on the differential analyzer. During this period he designed switching circuits based on Bool’s concept. In 1937, he wrote his master’s thesis. It was published in 1938. In his thesis, he proved that his switching circuit could simplify the arrangement of electromechanical relays. These types of arrangements were used at that time in telephone call routing switches. Later he expanded this concept and also proved that he could solve all problems like Boolean algebra.

Shannon joined MIT as a professor to work at the Research Electronics Laboratory (RLE) from 1956 to 1976.

Wartime research

During World War II, Shannon joined Bell Laboratories under a National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) contract. There he worked on fire systems and cryptography. In 1942 he invented signal flow charts. In 1943, he met the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing. Turing showed Shannon his 1936 paper which defined Turing’s universal machine.

Shannon published “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” which was constructed at Bell Laboratories with the help of other researchers such as Harry Nyquist and RVL Hartley. Its framework and terminology are still in use. Shannon invented the message passing system. Engineers got permission to focus on this system.

The death

He spent the last years of his life in a retirement home because he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Later, on February 24, 2001, he passed away.