Elwyn Berlekamp

Elwyn Berlekamp Ralph ( born September 6, 1940 in Dover ( Ohio)) is an American mathematician and computer scientist who is particularly concerned with coding theory and combinatorial game theory.

Life

Berlekamp studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was in 1961 after successfully completing the same competition Putnam Fellow. In 1962 he made ​​there his master's degree and in 1964 he received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Robert Gray Gallager and Claude Shannon (block coding with noiseless feedback ). He then taught until 1966 at the University of California, Berkeley before joining as a scientist at the Bell Laboratories. In 1971 he was again professor of mathematics at Berkeley.

Work

Berlekamp developed algorithms ( error correction ) code, such as the Berlekamp -Massey algorithm, and the Berlekamp- Welch algorithm. In 1973 he founded with his wife Jennifer and Solomon Golomb the company Cyclo Tomic Inc., which developed such algorithms. In 1982, he was their CEO (which is why he reduced his teaching career at Berkeley at that time ), 1985 the company was sold to Eastman Kodak. 1984 emerged as an offshoot of their cryptographic developments, the company Cylinks which later became the company Safenet ..

In combinatorial game theory, he is the co-author of a standard work with John Horton Conway and Richard K. Guy ( Winning Ways ) and a book with David Wolfe on the mathematics of Go and a book on the children's game Dots and Boxes ( Dots and Boxes ), which he analyzed from the late 1960s.

From him the Berlekamp algorithm ( 1967) originates in the computer algebra factorization of polynomials over finite fields.

After the company Axcom (then algorithms for derivatives trading of the Medallion Fund of the mathematician James Simons developed ) was from 1986 a consulting role, he took over in 1989, the company and became its President, sold his shares but after a year in December 1990 to Simons, where he profits of the company in the development and implementation of new algorithms significantly promoted .. the company is now part of hedge fund Renaissance Technologies, James Simons. Subsequently, he served as the Finance Committee of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. 1994 to 1998 he was Chairman of the Leitungsrat of MSRI and 2001-2003 at the International Computer Sciences Research Institute (ICSI ).

He was also a co-founder in 1991 of the Mathematics Publishing AK Peters of Alice and Klaus Peters.

Since 1992 he was co-organizer of several conferences in honor of Martin Gardner ( Gathering for Gardner, G4G ).

He is since 1999 a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1977 and of the National Academy of Engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Berlekamp is married, has two daughters and a son.

Writings

• Algebraic coding theory, McGraw Hill 1968, reprint Aegean Park Press 1984
• With John Horton Conway, Richard K. Guy: Winning, Braunschweig, 1985/86, 4 volumes, ISBN 3528085312, ISBN 3528085320, ISBN 3528085339, ISBN 3528085347 ( engl. Original:. Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, 2 volumes, ISBN 0120911019, ISBN 0120911027, updated editions from 2001 to 2004 ).
• The Dots and Boxes Game, AK Peters 2000, ISBN 1,568,811,292th