Peter Elias (November 23, 1923 – December 7, 2001) was a pioneer in the field of

information theory Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification (science), quantification, computer data storage, storage, and telecommunication, communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist a ...

. Born in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

faculty from 1953 to 1991. In 1955, Elias introduced

convolutional code In telecommunication, a convolutional code is a type of error-correcting code that generates parity symbols via the sliding application of a boolean polynomial function to a data stream. The sliding application represents the 'convolution' of t ...

s as an alternative to

block code In coding theory, block codes are a large and important family of error-correcting codes that encode data in blocks. There is a vast number of examples for block codes, many of which have a wide range of practical applications. The abstract definit ...

s. He also established the

binary erasure channel In coding theory and information theory, a binary erasure channel (BEC) is a communications channel model. A transmitter sends a bit (a zero or a one), and the receiver either receives the bit correctly, or with some probability P_e receives a me ...

and proposed

list decoding In coding theory, list decoding is an alternative to unique decoding of error-correcting codes for large error rates. The notion was proposed by Elias in the 1950s. The main idea behind list decoding is that the decoding algorithm instead of outpu ...

of error-correcting codes as an alternative to unique decoding.

Career

Peter Elias was a member of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

faculty from 1953 to 1991. From 1957 until 1966, he served as one of three founding editors of

Information and Control ''Information and Computation'' is a closed-access computer science journal published by Elsevier (formerly Academic Press). The journal was founded in 1957 under its former name ''Information and Control'' and given its current title in 1987. , t ...

Awards

Elias received the Claude E. Shannon Award 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 ...

(1977); the Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation of the IEEE Information Theory Society (1998); and 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 ...

(2002).

Family background

Peter Elias was born on November 23, 1923, in

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His father Nathaniel Mendel Elias, born on February 21, 1895, worked for

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

in his

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a township located in Middlesex County,in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan Valley region, Edison is a commercial hub, home to Menlo Park Mall and Little India. It is ...

, laboratory after graduating from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with a degree in

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

. His paternal grandparents were Emil Elias and Pepi Pauline Cypres (daughter of Peretz Hacohen Cypres and Lea Breindel Cypres) who married in 1889 in Kraków, Poland.

Death

Elias died (at age 78) on December 7, 2001, of

Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), also known as subacute spongiform encephalopathy or neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease, is an invariably fatal degenerative brain disorder. Early symptoms include memory problems, behavioral changes, ...

References

External links

*
Robert G. Gallager, "Peter Elias", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2008)

Peter Elias papers
MC-0606. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Distinctive Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery American information theorists Jewish engineers 1923 births 2001 deaths Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Harvard University alumni {{US-academic-bio-stub