Claude Shannon: His Work and Its Legacy

Abstract

The year 2016 marked the centennial of the birth of Claude Elwood Shannon, that singular genius whose fertile mind gave birth to the field of information theory. In addition to providing a source of elegant and intriguing mathematical problems, this field has also had a profound impact on other fields of science and engineering, notably communications and computing, among many others. While the life of this remarkable man has been recounted elsewhere, in this article we seek to provide an overview of his major scientific contributions and their legacy in today's world. This is both an enviable and an unenviable task. It is enviable, of course, because it is a wonderful story; it is unenviable because it would take volumes to give this subject its due. Nevertheless, in the hope of providing the reader with an appreciation of the extent and impact of Shannon's major works, we shall try.

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