Aaron D. Wyner (March 17, 1939 – September 29, 1997) was an Americaninformation theorist noted for his contributions incoding theory, particularly theGaussian channel. He lived inSouth Orange, New Jersey.^[1]

Wyner was born in theBronx,New York. In 1955, he graduated from theBronx High School of Science, and in 1960 completed a five-year joint engineering program withQueens College of theCity University of New York andColumbia University. In 1963 he received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering fromColumbia University for a thesis that worked out the algebra forconvolutional codes.^[2]

After a summer job at the IBMThomas J. Watson Research Center, Wyner joinedBell Laboratories atMurray Hill, New Jersey, as a member of the technical staff. In 1974 he became head of its Communications Analysis Research Department and led it until 1993, when he became a researcher in the information theory department.^[2]

His research includedcoding theory,optical communications,cryptography, andstochastic process. In a 1975 paper, he introduced the "wire-tap channel", showing how one could obtain "perfect secrecy" when a receiver enjoys a better channel than does the wire-tapping opponent.^[2]

Wyner was a member of theNational Academy of Engineering, anIEEE Fellow, and received all the IEEE Information Theory Society awards, i.e., theClaude E. Shannon Award, Prize Paper Award, and designation as Shannon Lecturer.^[1]

Sources

• National Academy of Engineering memorial tribute
• New York Times obituary
• ITSOC obituary

• 1939 births
• Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
• American information theorists
• Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
• People from South Orange, New Jersey
• Scientists at Bell Labs
• 1997 deaths
• 20th-century American mathematicians
• Mathematicians from New York (state)
• Scientists from the Bronx

• Articles with hCards