An Unsung Hero

An unsung hero of the computer age recently died. Dr. Jack Wolf, a seminal thinker in the area of information processing, helped to usher in the digital revolution by developing algorithms to efficiently compress, store and transmit information over networks that now encompass the entire world.

"His most important early work was devising a theorem with David Slepian in 1973 proving that two separate streams of correlated data can be sent independently and simultaneously and then combined and simplified at journey’s end. An example would be neighboring temperature sensors independently sending data to a weather center. Decades later, building on the work of other theorists and engineers, the technique propelled the development of computer networks."

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."  — Arthur Koestler on Originality