Solomon W. Golomb | |
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| Born | Solomon Wolf Golomb (1932-05-30)May 30, 1932 |
| Died | May 1, 2016(2016-05-01) (aged 83) Los Angeles,California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Johns Hopkins University Harvard University |
| Awards | Claude E. Shannon Award(1985) IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal(2000) National Medal of Science(2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics,engineering |
| Institutions | University of Southern California |
| Doctoral advisor | David Widder |
Solomon Wolf Golomb (/ɡəˈloʊm/gə-LOHM;[1] May 30, 1932 – May 1, 2016) was an American mathematician, engineer, and professor ofelectrical engineering at theUniversity of Southern California, best known for his works onmathematical games.[2] He most notably inventedCheskers (a hybrid betweenchess andcheckers) in 1948. He also fully describedpolyominoes in 1953.[3][4] He specialized in problems ofcombinatorial analysis,number theory,coding theory, and communications.Pentomino board games, based on his work, would go on to inspireTetris.[5]
Golomb, aBaltimore City College high school graduate, received his bachelor's degree fromJohns Hopkins University and master's and doctorate in mathematics fromHarvard University in 1957. His dissertation was "Problems in the Distribution of the Prime Numbers."
While working at theGlenn L. Martin Company, he became interested in communications theory and began working onshift register sequences. He spent hisFulbright year at theUniversity of Oslo and then joined theJet Propulsion Laboratory atCaltech, where he researched military and space communications. He joined the faculty ofUSC in 1963 and was awarded full tenure two years later.
Golomb pioneered the identification of the characteristics and merits ofmaximum length shift register sequences,[6] also known aspseudorandom or pseudonoise sequences, which have extensive military, industrial, and consumer applications. Today, millions of cordless and cellular phones employ pseudorandomdirect-sequence spread spectrum implemented with shift register sequences. His efforts made USC a center for communications research.
Golomb was the inventor ofGolomb coding, a form ofentropy encoding.Golomb rulers, used in astronomy and data encryption, are also named for him, as is one of the main generation techniques ofCostas arrays, the Lempel-Golomb generation method.
He was a regular columnist, writing Golomb's Puzzle Column in theIEEE Information Society Newsletter. He was also a frequent contributor toScientific American'sMathematical Games column (The column did much to publicize his discoveries about polyominoes and pentominoes) and a frequent participant inGathering 4 Gardner conferences.[7] Among his contributions to recreational mathematics areRep-tiles. He also contributed a puzzle to each issue of theJohns Hopkins Magazine, a monthly publication of his undergraduate alma mater, for a column called "Golomb's Gambits," and was a frequent contributor toWord Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics.[8]
Golomb was a member of theNational Academy of Engineering and theNational Academy of Sciences.
In 1985, he received theShannon Award of the Information Theory Society of the IEEE.
In 1992, he received the U.S.National Security Agency medal for his research. He has also received the Lomonosov Medal of theRussian Academy of Science and the Kapitsa Medal of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
In 2000, he was awarded theIEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal for his exceptional contributions to information sciences and systems.[9] For over four decades, he was singled out as a major figure in coding and information theory, specifically for his ability to apply advanced mathematics to problems in digital communications.
In 2012, he became a fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.[10] That same year, it was announced that he had been selected to receive theNational Medal of Science.[11] In 2014, he was elected as a fellow of theSociety for Industrial and Applied Mathematics "for contributions to coding theory, data encryption, communications, and mathematical games."[12]
In 2013, he was awarded theNational Medal of Science 2011.[13]
In 2016, he was awarded theBenjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering "for pioneering work in space communications and the design of digital spread spectrum signals, transmissions that provide security, interference suppression, and precise location for cryptography; missile guidance; defense, space, and cellular communications; radar; sonar; and GPS."[14]
