Solomon W. Golomb | |
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2014 studio portrait
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Born | Solomon Wolf Golomb May 30, 1932 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. |
Died | May 1, 2016 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
(aged 83)
Nationality | American |
Fields | Mathematics, engineering |
Institutions | University of Southern California |
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Doctoral advisor | David Widder |
Doctoral students | Hal Fredricksen, Christopher Wayne Walker, Sina Aboutorabi |
Notable awards |
Claude E. Shannon Award (1985) IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (2000) National Medal of Science (2011) |
Solomon Wolf Golomb (May 30, 1932 – May 1, 2016) was an American mathematician, engineer, and professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California, best known for his works on mathematical games. Most notably, he invented Cheskers in 1948 and coined the name. He also fully described polyominoes and pentominoes in 1953. He specialized in problems of combinatorial analysis, number theory, coding theory, and communications. His game of pentomino inspired Tetris.
Golomb, a graduate of the Baltimore City College high school, received his bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University and master's and doctorate degree in mathematics from Harvard University in 1957 with a dissertation on "Problems in the Distribution of the Prime Numbers".
While working at the Glenn L. Martin Company he became interested in communications theory and began his work on shift register sequences. He spent his Fulbright year at the University of Oslo and then joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech, where he researched military and space communications. He joined the faculty of USC in 1963 and was awarded full tenure two years later.