Solomon Kullback
| Solomon Kullback | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
April 3, 1907 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | August 5, 1994 (aged 87) Boynton Beach, Florida |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | cryptanalysis, mathematics, information theory |
| Institutions | George Washington University, National Security Agency |
| Alma mater |
City College of New York (B.A., 1927; M.A., 1929) George Washington University (Ph.D., Mathematics, 1934) |
| Doctoral advisor | Frank M. Weida |
| Doctoral students | Hubert Lilliefors |
| Known for | Work in Information theory, Kullback–Leibler divergence |
Solomon Kullback (April 3, 1907 – August 5, 1994) was an American cryptanalyst and mathematician, who was one of the first three employees hired by William F. Friedman at the US Army's Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s, along with Frank Rowlett and Abraham Sinkov. He went on to a long and distinguished career at SIS and its eventual successor, the National Security Agency (NSA). Kullback was the Chief Scientist at the NSA until his retirement in 1962, whereupon he took a position at the George Washington University.
The Kullback–Leibler divergence is named after Kullback and Richard Leibler.
Kullback was born in Brooklyn, New York and attended Boys High School there. He then went to City College of New York, graduating with a BA in 1927 and an MA in math in 1929. He completed a doctorate in math from George Washington University in 1934. His intention had been to teach, and he returned to Boy's High School to do so, but found it not to his taste; he discovered his real interest was using mathematics, not teaching it.
At the suggestion of Abraham Sinkov, who showed him a Civil Service flyer for "junior mathematicians" at US$2,000 per year, he took the examination. Both passed, and were assigned to Washington as junior cryptanalysts.
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