Jack Keil Wolf (March 14, 1935 – May 12, 2011) was an American researcher in
information theory and
coding theory
Coding theory is the study of the properties of codes and their respective fitness for specific applications. Codes are used for data compression, cryptography, error detection and correction, data transmission and data storage. Codes are studied ...
.
Biography
Wolf was born in 1935 in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[Weequahic High School
Weequahic High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades, located in the Weequahic section of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The school is operated by the Newar ...]
in 1952. He received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in 1956 and his Ph.D. from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 1960 for his thesis "On the Detection and Estimation Problem for Multiple Nonstationary Random Processes". He held faculty appointments at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
1963–1965, the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn
The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...
1965–1973 and the
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...
1973–1984, and worked at
RCA Laboratories
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
and
Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
. In 1984, he joined the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...
, where he applied communication and information theory to
magnetic storage
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is ac ...
. He also held a part-time appointment at
Qualcomm since its formation in 1985. He was president of the
IEEE Information Theory Society
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
in 1974. He died on May 12, 2011.
Awards and honors
*
IEEE Fellow
As of 2019, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has 5,082 members designated Fellow, each of whom is associated with one of the 41 societies under the IEEE. The Fellow grade of membership is the highest level of membershi ...
(1973)
*
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...
(1979)
* Member of the
U.S. National Academy of Engineering (1993)
*
IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award (1998)
*
Claude E. Shannon Award from the
IEEE Information Theory Society
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
(2001)
*
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2004)
* Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
(2005)
* Member of the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2010)
* Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
*
Marconi Prize
The Marconi Prize is an annual award recognizing achievements and advancements made in field of communications (radio, mobile, wireless, telecommunications, data communications, networks, and Internet). The prize is awarded by the Marconi Society ...
from and Fellow of the
Marconi Society (2011)
References
External links
*
*
*
Princeton alumni profiles*
CMRR Faculty PageRoberto Padovani, Paul H. Siegel, and Andrew J. Viterbi, "Jack Keil Wolf", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Jack Keil
1935 births
2011 deaths
Fellow Members of the IEEE
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American information theorists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
New York University faculty
People from Newark, New Jersey
Princeton University alumni
University of California, San Diego faculty
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
Weequahic High School alumni
Polytechnic Institute of New York University faculty
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science