Claude Shannon, founder of
information theory, died on
Saturday,
February 24, 2001. Shannon made
major contributions to
telecommunications,
Boolean Algebra, and
cryptography in addition founding
information theory.
It was Shannon, for example, who proved that the only provably secure cryptosystem is one in which the key is as long as the information to be transmitted. In other words, the One Time Pad.
Boolean Algebra, far from being an obscure field of mathematics, is absolutely essential to Computer Science. The circuits in the computer you are using right now (and in fact every digital computer in existence) are based on boolean algebra.
His Master's Thesis is widely recognized as one of the most influential technical theses of all time.
When asked why he pursued the topics he did he once remarked, "I just wondered how things were put together."
Hopefully, now he knows. The entropy of the universe increases...