About The Book
A tribute to the life and legacy of Richard Hamming
This biographical book is part of my tribute to a special individual, Richard Wesley Hamming (1915–1998). Why would I do such a thing? Simply put, in his role as my Ph.D. dissertation advisor, Hamming saved me by stepping in at a critical time, supporting my research, empowering my experimentation, and mentoring me toward a career and life path with achievements and fulfillment.
Hamming was an American mathematician, most known for his work in mathematics and computer science. While employed at the American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs), he developed Error Correcting Codes (ECC), which are internationally known for helping form the foundation of modern computing science and enabling the error-free digital communications on which we all rely.
Hamming received major awards for this work, including the 1968 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Turing Award, the 1986 IEEE Hamming Award, and the 1996 Eduard Rhein Foundation Award.
His other accomplishments over decades of work, however, remain generally unknown to the generations of mathematicians, physicists, and engineers that follow. What happened in those years set the stage for the world of science we know today, including the transition from analog to digital computing and the development of the fields of computer simulation, applied mathematics, and computer science. Hamming's early work produced significant advances and drove him to work on the most important problems of the time. Hamming received many honors for ECC, but that and many others of his accomplishments had yet to be adequately described in a biography. Throughout his life, he encouraged and enabled, and I would say truly mentored, many other individuals. A complete biography about Hamming did not yet exist and, in my humble opinion, is long overdue.
I believe that a person’s legacy should not be limited to just what they attempt and accomplish in their lifetime; it should also include what is attempted and accomplished by the succeeding generations that they helped empower.