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Richard Hamming
Mathematician

Richard Hamming

Famoose for

Error-correcting codes and reliable digital computation.

Hamming codes · Numerical Methods

Born
11 February 1915
Birthplace
Chicago
Died
7 January 1998

More people

Ada LovelaceRecognising what a programmable machine could do beyond arithmetic.Alan TuringHelping break Enigma and laying foundations for computer science.Grace HopperHelping make computer programming readable in English-like language.

Richard Hamming

American mathematician whose work connected numerical methods, computing and telecommunications. Received the Turing Award in 1968.

Early life

Mathematical training

Studied at Chicago and Nebraska before completing a mathematics doctorate at Illinois in 1942. A scholarship led him from an initial interest in engineering toward mathematics.

Career

  1. 1945

    Los Alamos

    Programmed calculating machines for scientific work.

  2. 1946

    Bell Labs

    Joined the research laboratory.

  3. 1976

    Teaching

    Moved to the Naval Postgraduate School after retiring from Bell Labs.

Contributions

Hamming codes

Developed methods for detecting and correcting errors in digital information.

Numerical Methods

Published Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers.

Beyond work

Professional community

Served as president of the Association for Computing Machinery from 1958 to 1960 and devoted later years to teaching.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: unknown. Source credit retained; reuse licence not established · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.