Claude Shannon is an American mathematical engineer and is considered "the father of information theory" (Cosmo Learning 2010). Shannon was born in the city of Gaylord, Michigan on April 30, 196 (NY 2011). Gaylord was a small town of approximately 3,000 individuals and his father was the town judge; his mother was the principal at the local town high school (NYU 2011). His mathematical and scientific ability did not necessarily come from either of his parents though his grandfather was an inventor and a farmer (2011). He invented the washing machine as well as types of farming machinery (2011). Shannon married in 1949 and had three children with his wife. He and his family lived just a short distance- a few miles -- from MIT. He had a lifetime obsession with balance and control and it can be seen in the house that he shared with his family. Of particular interest is a chair lift that he built to take his three children down to the beach -- 600 feet down to the lakeside (NYU 2011).

Shannon is famous for founding information theory with a seminal paper that was published in 1948 (2010). In 1937, as an...

While he was on staff there, he came up with a theory that explained the communication of information and then worked on the problem of how to most effectively and efficiently transmit information (2011).
The mathematical theory of communication was the climax of Shannon's mathematical and engineering investigations. The concept of entropy was an important feature of Shannon's theory, which he demonstrated to be equivalent to a shortage in the information content (a degree of uncertainty) in a message (NY 2011).

Shannon's formal education started at Michigan University in 1936, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree (NYU 2011). He later went to MIT where he studied electrical engineering and mathematics. He received a…