[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 30 (Thursday, March 8, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2068-S2069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO DR. CLAUDE SHANNON

 Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today in memory of Dr. 
Claude Shannon, a pioneer in the field of modern communications 
technology. His work provided a major part of the theoretical 
foundation leading to applications as diverse as digital cell phones, 
deep space communications and the compact disc.
  Dr. Shannon died on February 24 after suffering from Alzheimer's 
disease. He was not widely known by the general public, but he should 
have been. His work predated the establishment of the World Wide Web, 
but in 1948 he published a seminal paper entitled ``A Mathematical 
Theory of Communication.'' This paper was the first to provide a 
mathematical model of the communication process. He was able to define 
``information'' in a way that was unrelated to its semantic meaning by 
explaining the power of encoding information in a simple language of 
1's and 0's. Communication then became the process of transferring 
information from a ``source'', modified by an ``encoder'', through a 
``channel'', to a ``decoder'' at the output of a channel. This theory 
underlies the modern communications revolution.
  Dr. Shannon's work showed that every kind of information source--
text, images, video, data--has associated with it a quantifiable 
information content that mandates how efficiently it can be 
represented, the basis for ``data compression.'' For instance, he 
showed that, no matter how clever you are, you can't represent English 
text with less than about 1.5 bits per letter. Dr. Shannon also 
established fundamental limits to how efficiently one can transmit 
information over imperfect communication channels; his work on reliable 
transmission formed the theoretical basis for the modems, satellite 
links and computer memories that are pervasive today. These aspects of 
Shannon's work became the foundation of what we now call ``Information 
Theory.''
  As important as Dr. Shannon's 1948 masterwork was, it was not his 
sole contribution to the emerging information age. As a graduate 
student at MIT, Shannon made a profound and fundamental contribution to 
the field of

[[Page S2069]]

computer design when he showed that a then-obscure branch of 
mathematics called ``Boolean algebra,'' the algebra of 1's and 0's, 
could be used to design circuits for computation and switching. The 
result was what some have called ``the most influential master's thesis 
in history.'' Shannon's work on cryptography during World War II also 
formed the modern theoretical framework for secure communication 
systems.
  The Washington Post pointed out in Dr. Shannon's obituary that his 
achievements are at the core of the technology that delivers the 
Internet and its various applications, from music to video to e-mail. 
His work has had applications in fields as diverse as computer science, 
genetic engineering and neuroanatomy. Some have called his 1948 paper 
``the Magna Carta of the information age.''
  Dr. Shannon was also renowned by his friends and colleagues for his 
eclectic interests and capabilities. He rode down the halls of Bell 
Labs on a unicycle while juggling; he invented a rocket-powered 
Frisbee; and he developed ``THROBAC-I,'' a computer that computed in 
Roman numerals.
  There are only a few authentic geniuses in this world. Dr. Shannon 
was one and today we remember him for his accomplishments.

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