Robert Fano
| Robert Mario Fano | |
|---|---|
| File:Robert Fano 2012-03-13.jpg
Prof. Fano in his office at MIT
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| Born | 11 November 1917 [1] Turin, Italy |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Fields | computer science, information theory |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Thesis | Theoretical Limitations on the Broadband Matching of Arbitrary Impedances (1947) |
| Doctoral advisor | Ernst Guillemin |
| Known for | Shannon-Fano coding, founder of Project MAC |
| Notable awards | IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal (1977) Shannon Award (1976) IEEE Fellow (1954) |
Robert Mario Fano (born 11 November 1917[2] in Turin, Italy, as Roberto Mario Fano) is an Italian-American computer scientist, currently professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3] Fano is known principally for his work on information theory, inventing (with Claude Shannon) Shannon-Fano coding[4] and deriving the Fano inequality. He also invented the Fano algorithm and postulated the Fano metric.[5][6] In the early 1960s, he was involved in the development of time-sharing computers, and from 1963 until 1968 served as founding director of MIT's Project MAC, which evolved to become what is now known as the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.[7][8]
Fano's father was the mathematician Gino Fano, his older brother was physicist Ugo Fano, and his cousin was Giulio Racah.[9] He grew up in Turin and studied engineering as an undergraduate at the School of Engineering of Torino (Politecnico di Torino) until 1939, when he emigrated to the United States as a result of anti-Jewish legislation passed under Benito Mussolini.[10] He received his S.B. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1941, before joining the staff of the MIT Radiation Laboratory. After the war, he received an Sc.D., also from MIT, in 1947; his thesis, entitled "Theoretical Limitations on the Broadband Matching of Arbitrary Impedances",[11] was supervised by Ernst Guillemin. He joined the MIT faculty in 1947. Between 1950 and 1953, he led the Radar Techniques Group at Lincoln Laboratory.[12] In 1954, Fano was made an IEEE Fellow for "contributions in the field of information theory and microwave filters".[13]
Fano was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1973, to the National Academy of Sciences in 1978, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.[12][14]
Fano received the Claude E. Shannon Award in 1976 for his work in information theory.[12]
Bibliography
In addition to his work in information theory, Fano also published articles and books about microwave systems,[15] electromagnetism, network theory, and engineering education. His book-length publications include:
- George L. Ragan, ed., Microwave Transmission Circuits, vol. 9 in the Radiation Laboratory Series (as co-author, 1948).
- Electromagnetic Energy Transmission and Radiation (with Lan Jen Chu and Richard B. Adler, 1960).
- Electromagnetic Fields, Energy, and Forces (with Chu and Adler, 1960).
- Transmission of Information: A Statistical Theory of Communications (1961), ISBN 978-0262561693.
References
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External links
- Oral history interview with Robert M. Fano 20 April 1989. Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota. Fano discusses his move to computer science from information theory and his interaction with the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Topics include: computing research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); the work of J.C.R. Licklider at the Information Processing Techniques Office of ARPA; time-sharing and computer networking research; Project MAC; computer science education; CTSS development; System Development Corporation (SDC); the development of ARPANET; and a comparison of ARPA, National Science Foundation, and Office of Naval Research computer science funding.
- Video of Robert Fano on YouTube from 1964, demonstrating the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS).
- Robert Fano at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Pages with broken file links
- Use dmy dates from August 2011
- 1917 births
- Living people
- People from Turin
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- American information theorists
- American people of Italian-Jewish descent
- Italian refugees
- Italian Jews
- Italian information theorists
- Italian computer scientists
- Jewish American scientists
- Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
