Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith has been honored with the IEEE Information Theory Society’s 2027 Claude E. Shannon Award, which recognizes “consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory.”
As part of the award — which is the highest honor from the IEEE Information Theory Society — Goldsmith will present the Shannon Lecture at the society’s annual symposium (ISIT) next year in Sorrento, Italy, continuing the tradition of the first Shannon Lecture, given by Claude Shannon himself in 1973.
Shannon’s groundbreaking paper, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” published in 1948, created the mathematical foundation for the digital information age. Shannon’s work underpins all modern digital communications, data compression and cryptography systems, and took place long before the technology was in place to implement his visionary ideas.
“I am deeply honored to receive an award named for my most significant professional hero, and which many of my most esteemed colleagues have received,” Goldsmith said in a post on LinkedIn. “The creativity, beauty, depth and impact of Shannon’s work inspired the trajectory of my research in wireless information theory.”
Goldsmith noted that she was introduced to the field of information theory in 1989 as a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley, when she asked her advisor, Pravin Varaiya, how to assess the different technologies vying to become the first digital cellular standard. Varaiya suggested she look at the Shannon capacity of wireless channels to gain insight.
“That sparked my magical journey to discover the brilliant concept of Shannon capacity, and what was known about it for wireless channels,” Goldsmith continued. “I first read Shannon’s 1948 paper and then dove into Bob Gallager’s captivating book on information theory. From the beginning of that journey until now, information theory has been the foundation of my research and also provided the insights that led to the state-of-the-art technologies developed in my two startups.”
Goldsmith has been a member of the Information Theory Society since 1990 and has served as its president, founded its student committee and endowed an award to recognize early-career women in the field.
“This society, its prominent members who have inspired me, and the treasured friendships I have developed within it have deeply impacted my career and the joy I get from it,” Goldsmith said. “For that reason it will be incredibly meaningful to present the 2027 Shannon Lecture at ISIT, my first since before the pandemic. I look forward to reconnecting with friends and colleagues I had the pleasure of seeing each year at the symposium prior to my move into academic leadership.”
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