Robert Fano
Roberto Mario "Robert" Fano (11 November 1917 – 13 July 2016) was an Italian-American computer scientist. He was a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1] He was born in Turin, Italy.
Robert Fano | |
|---|---|
 Prof. Fano in his office at MIT in 2012 | |
| Born | Roberto Mario Fano 11 November 1917 |
| Died | 13 July 2016 (aged 98) |
| Citizenship | United States of America |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Known for | Shannon-Fano coding, founder of Project MAC |
| Awards | IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1977) Shannon Award (1976) IEEE Fellow (1954) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | computer science, information theory |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | Theoretical Limitations on the Broadband Matching of Arbitrary Impedances (1947) |
He was known principally for his work on information theory, inventing (with Claude Shannon) Shannon–Fano coding[2] and deriving the Fano inequality. He also invented the Fano algorithm and postulated the Fano metric.[3]
Fano died on 13 July 2016 at the age of 98.[4]
References
- ↑ Markoff, John (13 March 2008). "Joseph Weizenbaum Dies; Computer Pioneer Was 85". The New York Times: 22. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/world/europe/13weizenbaum.html. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
- ↑ Salomon, David (2007). Data compression: the complete reference. Springer. pp. 72–. ISBN 978-1-84628-602-5. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
- ↑ Fano, Robert M. (April 1963). "A heuristic discussion of probabilistic decoding". IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. 9 (2): 64–73. doi:10.1109/tit.1963.1057827.
- ↑ Conner-Simons, Adam; Gordon, Rachel (15 July 2016). "Robert Fano, computing pioneer and founder of CSAIL, dies at 98". MIT News Office. Archived from the original on 16 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2016.