Robert J. McEliece (May 21, 1942 – May 8, 2019)
was the Allen E. Puckett Professor and a professor of electrical engineering at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
(Caltech) best known for his work in error-correcting coding and
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 ...
. He was the 2004 recipient of the
Claude E. Shannon Award
The Claude E. Shannon Award of the IEEE Information Theory Society was created to honor consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory. Each Shannon Award winner is expected to present a Shannon Lecture at the following ...
and the 2009 recipient of the
IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal
The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal is an award honoring ''"exceptional contributions to communications and networking sciences and engineering"'' in the field of telecommunications. The medal is one of the highest honors awarded by the Instit ...
. He was a life fellow of the IEEE in and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998.
Born in Washington, D.C.,
and raised in Baltimore, McEliece was educated at Caltech (
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in 1964,
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in mathematics 1967) and attended Trinity College,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
in 1964-65.
He began working at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an undergraduate, and continued there until 1978. From 1978 until 1982 he was professor of mathematics and research professor at the Coordinated Science Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. During the 1970s, he collaborated with Elwyn Berlekamp at Cyclotomics.
In 1982 he returned to Caltech as professor of electrical engineering, retiring in 2007. At Caltech he won five teaching awards and advised 30 Ph. D. students. From 1978 until his retirement, McEliece consulted with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on error-correcting coding schemes. Beginning in 1997, he consulted with SONY in Tokyo.
He had three daughters and one son. He died in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
on May 8, 2019.
Awards and recognitions
*
(1984)
*Fellow 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 ...
[
]
Selected publications
*
''A Public-Key Cryptosystem Based on Algebraic Coding Theory,''
JPL Deep Space Network Progress Report 42– 44 (1978), pp. 114–116,
*''On the Inherent Intractability of Certain Coding Problems'' (with E. R. Berlekamp
Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp (September 6, 1940 – April 9, 2019) was a professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.Contributors, ''IEEE Transactions on Information Theory'' 42, #3 (May 1996), p. 1048. DO10 ...
and H. Van Tilborg), IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory IT-24 (1978), pp. 384–386,
See also
*McEliece cryptosystem
In cryptography, the McEliece cryptosystem is an asymmetric encryption algorithm developed in 1978 by Robert McEliece. It was the first such scheme to use randomization in the encryption process. The algorithm has never gained much acceptance in ...
References
External links
McEliece website at Caltech
{{DEFAULTSORT:McEliece, Robert
1942 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
American information theorists
Modern cryptographers
Public-key cryptographers
Fellow Members of the IEEE
People from Washington, D.C.
People from Pasadena, California