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Solomon W. Golomb

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	Topics Solomon W. Golomb Topic Home Solomon Wolf Golomb (b. 1932 in Baltimore, MarylandBaltimore, Maryland Baltimore is an independent city located in the U.S.... ) is a mathematician and engineer, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California Summary The University of Southern California , located in the downtown district of Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1880, ma... best known to the general public and fans of mathematical games as the inventor of polyominoPolyomino A polyomino is a polyform with the square as its base form.... es, the inspiration for the computer game TetrisTetris *Tetris* is widely known as one of the most popular computer puzzle game of all time .... . He has specialized in problems of combinatorial analysis, number theory, coding theory and communications. Golomb rulerGolomb ruler Overview In mathematics, a Golomb ruler, named for Solomon W.... s, used in astronomy and in data encryption, are also named for him, as is one of the main generation techniques of Costas arraysCostas array A Costas array can be regarded geometrically as a set of n points lying on the squares of a n×n checkerboa... . Golomb, a graduate of the Baltimore City CollegeBaltimore City College Baltimore City College is a public secondary school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.... high school, received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876, is a private institution of higher learning located in Baltimore, Maryland, Un... and an M.A. and a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from Harvard UniversityHarvard University "Harvard" redirects here. For other uses of the name Harvard, see Harvard .... in 1957 with a dissertation on "Problems in the Distribution of the Prime Numbers". While working at the Glenn L. Martin Co. he became interested in communications theory and began his work on shift register sequencesLinear feedback shift register A linear feedback shift register is a shift register whose input bit is a linear function of its previous state.... . He spent his Fulbright year at the University of OsloUniversity of Oslo The University of Oslo was founded in 1811 as Universitas Regia Fredericiana .... and then joined the Jet Propulsion LaboratoryJet Propulsion Laboratory The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory , in Pasadena and La Caada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA, builds and oper... at Caltech, where he researched military and space communications. He became a faculty member of the University of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California The University of Southern California , located in the downtown district of Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1880, ma... in 1963, becoming a full professor in 1991. Golomb pioneered the identification of the characteristics and merits of maximum length shift register sequencesMaximum length sequence Overview A maximum length sequence is a pseudorandom binary sequence used for measuring impulse responses.... , also known as pseudorandomPseudorandom number generator A pseudorandom number generator is an algorithm that generates a sequence of numbers which are not truly random.... or pseudonoise sequences, which have extensive military, industrial and consumer applications. Today, millions of cordless and cellular phones employ pseudorandom direct-sequence spread spectrumDirect-sequence spread spectrum In telecommunications, direct-sequence spread spectrum is a modulation technique.... implemented with shift register sequences. His efforts made USC a center for communications research. Golomb was the inventor of Golomb codingGolomb coding Golomb coding is a form of entropy encoding invented by Solomon W.... , a form of entropy encodingEntropy encoding An entropy encoding is a coding scheme that assigns codes to symbols so as to match code lengths with the probabilities of t... . He is a regular columnist, writing Golomb's Puzzle Column in IEEE Information Society Newsletter. He was a frequent contributor to Scientific AmericanScientific American *Scientific American* is a popular-science magazine, published since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously p... s Mathematical Games column. Among his contributions to recreational mathematics are Rep-tiles. He also contributes a puzzle to each issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine, a monthly publication of his alma mater, for a column called "Golomb's Gambits." In 1992, he received the medal of the U.S. National Security AgencyNational Security Agency The National Security Agency / Central Security Service is believed to be the largest United States government intelligence... for his research, and has also been the recipient of the Lomonosov Medal of the Russian Academy of Science and the Kapitsa Medal of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. In 2000 he was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE is an international non-profit, professional organizati... ' Richard W. Hamming MedalRichard W. Hamming Medal Richard W. Hamming Medal is an award given annually by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the internatio... for his exceptional contributions to information sciences and systems. He was singled out as a major figure of coding and information theory for over four decades, specifically for his ability to apply advanced mathematics to problems in digital communications. Trivia Golomb was one of the first high profile professors to attempt the Ronald K. HoeflinRonald K. Hoeflin Ronald K. Hoeflin is a philosopher, creator of the MegaOmni magazine, pp 128 ff, April 1985Republic Magazine, November 1985,... Mega IQ power test, which originally appeared in Omni Magazine. He scored at least IQ 176, which represents 1/1,000,000 of the unselected population. Selected books Signal Design for Good Correlation (ISBN 0-521-82104-5) Polyominoes, Princeton University Press; 2nd edition 1996, ISBN 0-691-02444-8 Shift Register Sequences, San Francisco, Holden-Day, 1967. ISBN 0894120484 External links