Richard W. Hamming has been awarded the 1996 Eduard Rhein Award for Basic Research. The prize was awarded "for his basic contributions in the field of information theory, particularly for the first concept of constructing error correcting codes and establishing their limits (Hamming distance / Hamming codes)." The Basic Research Award is endowed with 200,000 German marks. the official presentation of the award took place in the Hall of Fame of the German Museum (Deutsches Museum) in Munich on October 12, 1996.
Professor Hamming was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 2, 1915. He received his B.S. in 1937 from the University of Chicago, his M.S. in 1939 from the University of Nebraska, and his Ph.D. in 1942 from the University of Illinois, all in mathematics. Dr. Hamming worked at Los Alamos from 1945-1946. From 1946-1976, he worked at Bell Labs. During this period he also taught for three years at Princeton University. Since 1976, he has been a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California where he has taught classes in information and coding theory, differential and integral calculus, and advanced topics in computer science. He has also served terms as president of the Association for Computing Machinery and vice president of the Mathematical Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Professor Hamming is the author of more than 75 technical reports and nine books, including Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers, which has been in use for 17 years, Digital Filters, and Information and Coding. He has also served as editor for various technical journals in computer science, mathematics and engineering sciences.
Professor Hamming received the Turing Prize from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1968; the Emanuel R. Piore Award from the IEEE in 1979; the Hamming Medal, which was established to honor Professor Hamming's contributions to information sciences and systems, from the IEEE in 1988; and the Harold Pender Prize from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.
Jack H. van Lint, associate editor for Coding Theory of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory from 1985 to 1988, has received honorary doctorates from the University of Bergen in Norway and the Polytechnical University of Bucharest in Romania. The first was awarded for his contributions to coding theory and combinatorics, the second for his scientific work and his contribution to the strong relations between his university and the university in Bucharest.
Dr. van Lint was born in Bandoeng, Java in the former Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) on September 1, 1932. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Utrecht (1955, 1957). He has been a professor of mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology since 1959. During his career, Van Lint was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories (Murray Hill) in 1966, 1971, and 1977. He has also held the positions of Morgan Ward visiting professor (1970-1971), Fairchild Distinguished Scholar (1982-1983), and visiting professor (1988-1989) at the California Institute of Technology.
He is the author of ten books including Introduction to Coding Theory; Designs, Graphs, Codes, and Their Links (with P.J. Cameron); and A Course in Combinatorics (with R.M. Wilson). He is presently editor of the Journal of Combinatorial Theory (A); Discrete Mathematics; Designs, Codes and Cryptography; Geometriae Dedicata; and Theoretical Computer Science.
Dr. van Lint was president of the Netherlnads Mathematical Society from 1968 to 1970. He has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1972. In 1993, the Queen of the Netherlands appointed him Knight in the Order of the Lion of Netherlands.
Shun-Ichi Amari has been awarded the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award. The Piore Award is given annually for outstanding achievement in information processing in relation to computer science. Dr. Amari received the award for his "pioneering contributions and leadership in neural networks and information geometry".
Shun-ichi Amari was born in Tokyo, Japan on January 3, 1936. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1958 majoring in mathematical engineering and received the Dr. Eng. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1963. He was an associate professor at Kyushu University from 1963 to 1967, and an associate and then full professor at the Department of Mathematical Engineering and Information Physics, University of Tokyo and is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo after his retirement in 1996. He is now the director of the Brain Information Processing Group at RIKEN Frontier Research Program.
Dr. Amari has been engaged in research in wide areas of mathematical engineering or applied mathematics, such as topological network theory, differential geometry of continuum mechanics, pattern recognition and information sciences. In particular, he has devoted himself to mathematical foundations of neural networks since the late sixties.
Dr. Amari gave the Mahalanobis Lecture at the 47th Meeting of the International Statistical Institute, and many plenary talks at international conferences on neural networks, information theory, systems theory and statistics. He now serves as the President of International Neural Network Society, Vice-President of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, Council Member of the Bernoulli Society and many others. He was a Coeditor-in-chief of Neural Networks and editors of many international journals. He is an IEEE Fellow, and has received a number awards, including the Japan Academy Award (1995), IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Award (1992), best paper awards of a number of journals.
Shun-ichi Amari and his wife, Masako, reside in Tokyo. They have three daughters, Maki, Yuki and Miki. His non professional interests include go-game (a very good amateur player), skiing and tennis.