David Albert Huffman (August 9, 1925 – October 7, 1999) was an American pioneer in
computer science, known for his
Huffman coding.
He was also one of the pioneers in the field of
mathematical origami.
Education
Huffman earned his bachelor's degree in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from
Ohio State University in 1944. Then, he served two years as an officer in the
United States Navy. He returned to Ohio State to earn his master's degree in electrical engineering in 1949. In 1953, he earned his
Doctor of Science in electrical engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with the thesis ''The Synthesis of Sequential Switching Circuits'', advised by
Samuel H. Caldwell
Samuel Hawks Caldwell (January 15, 1904 – October 12, 1960) was an American electrical engineer, known for his contributions to the early computers.
Early life and education
Caldwell enrolled at MIT in 1921, where he completed his bachelor's, ma ...
.
Career
Huffman joined the faculty at MIT in 1953. In 1967, he joined the faculty of
University of California, Santa Cruz and helped found its Computer Science Department, where he served as chair from 1970 to 1973. He retired in 1994.
Huffman is best known for
Huffman coding, which he published while a ScD student at MIT in 1952. However, he reportedly was more proud of his work "The Synthesis of Sequential Switching Circuits,"
which was the topic of his 1953 MIT thesis (an abridged version of which was published by in the Journal of the Franklin Institute in 1954.)
Awards and honors
* 1955: The
Louis E. Levy Medal
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...
from the
Franklin Institute for his doctoral thesis on sequential
switching circuits.
* 1973: The
W. Wallace McDowell Award
The W. Wallace McDowell Award is awarded by the IEEE Computer Society for outstanding theoretical, design, educational, practical, or related innovative contributions that fall within the scope of Computer Society interest. This is the highest tec ...
from the IEEE Computer Society.
* 1981: Charter recipient of the
Computer Pioneer Award from the
IEEE Computer Society.
* 1998: A Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the
IEEE Information Theory Society, for ''"the invention of the Huffman minimum-length lossless data-compression code"''.
* 1999: The
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal is presented annually to up to three persons, for outstanding achievements in information sciences, information systems and information technology. The recipients receive a gold medal, together with a replica in ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Huffman, David A.
1925 births
1999 deaths
American information theorists
Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni
University of California, Santa Cruz faculty
20th-century American mathematicians