Main Event

In 1940, he got the chance to mingle with the likes of Hermann Weyl, John Von Neumann, Albert Einstein, and Kurt Gödel. During World War II, he was appointed by Bell Telephone Labs to study fire-control systems. In 1942, he received credits for developing signal-flow graphs. Shannon helped write an essay on fire control with Ralph Beebe Blackman and Hendrik Wade Bode, named "Data Smoothing and Prediction in Fire-Control Systems". In early 1943, Shannon worked with British mathematician Alan Turing. During their discussion, Shannon realized that their ideas supported each other.

In 1948, Claude Shannon published “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” a paper that taught people what information theory was all about. Shannon explained the concept of “information” meant for communication engineers and a way to quantify it. According to his theory, the fundamental unit of information is the "bit". The concepts developed by Shannon constitute our modern digital technology. CDs, DVDs, cell phones, fax machines, modems, computer networks, hard drives, memory chips, encryption schemes, MP3 music, optical communication, high-definition television, and many more things use Shannon's concepts of information. Even though the importance of his work is vital, not many people know who Claude Shannon was. Shannon's revolutionary ideas contributed to and changed the world of communication.

In 1949, Claude met and married Betty Shannon (née Mary Elizabeth Moore) at Bell Labs, where Betty worked as a numerical analyst. She was his collaborator in some of his biggest inventions. In 1956, he became part of the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). Claude worked with the institute until 1978.

When he retired, he continued his life with Betty and resided at their home in Winchester, Massachusetts. They had three children together, 2 sons named Robert James Shannon and Andrew Moore Shannon, and a daughter named Margarita Shannon. Claude was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and lived in a nursing home in Medford, Massachusetts during his last days. On February 24, 2001, at the age of 84, Claude Shannon passed away.

Among his unique inventions are the “Ultimate Machine”, a box with a switch on the side that when switched on would activate an arm to reach out from a lid on the box, switch itself off, and return inside the box; a mechanical version of W.C. Fields that could juggle; a machine that could solve the Rubik’s Cube; and his famous mechanical mouse “Theseus” that learned how to navigate mazes with the help of telephone relay circuits. Claude Shannon won many awards and accolades during his lifetime.