IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Vol. 53, No. 1, March 2003 Editor: Lance C. Pérez ISSN 1059-2362 LIVING INFORMATION THEORY The 2002 Shannon Lecture by Toby Berger School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 1 Meanings of the Title Information theory has ... perhaps The title, ”Living Information Theory,” is a triple enten- ballooned to an importance beyond dre. First and foremost, it pertains to the information its actual accomplishments. Our fel- theory of living systems. Second, it symbolizes the fact low scientists in many different that our research community has been living informa- fields, attracted by the fanfare and by tion theory for more than five decades, enthralled with the new avenues opened to scientific the beauty of the subject and intrigued by its many areas analysis, are using these ideas in ... of application and potential application. Lastly, it is in- biology, psychology, linguistics, fun- tended to connote that information theory is decidedly damental physics, economics, the theory of the orga- alive, despite sporadic protestations to the contrary. nization, ... Although this wave of popularity is Moreover, there is a thread that ties together all three of certainly pleasant and exciting for those of us work- these meanings for me. That thread is my strong belief ing in the field, it carries at the same time an element that one way in which information theorists, both new of danger. While we feel that information theory is in- and seasoned, can assure that their subject will remain deed a valuable tool in providing fundamental in- vitally alive deep into the future is to embrace enthusias- sights into the nature of communication problems tically its applications to the life sciences. and will continue to grow in importance, it is cer- tainly no panacea for the communication engineer or, 2 Early History of Information Theory in a fortiori, for anyone else. Seldom do more than a few Biology of nature’s secrets give way at one time. More devastating was Peter Elias’s scathing 1958 editorial In the 1950’s and early 1960’s a cadre of scientists and en- inthesamejournal,Two Famous Papers, whichinpartread: gineers were adherents of the premise that information theory could serve as a calculus for living systems. That The first paper has the generic title Information Theory, is, they believed information theory could be used to Photosynthesis and Religion... written by an engineer or build a solid mathematical foundation for biology physicist ... I suggest we stop writing [it], and release which always had occupied a peculiar middle ground a supply of man power to work on ... important prob- between the hard and the soft sciences. International lems which need investigation. meetings were organized by Colin Cherry and others to The demise of the nascent community that was endeav- explore this frontier, but by the mid-1960’s the effort had oring to inject information theory into mainstream biol- dissipated. This may have been due in part to none other ogy probably was occasioned less by these “purist” than Claude Shannon himself, who in his guest edito- rial, The Bandwagon, in the March 1956 issue of the IRE Transactions on Information Theory stated: continued on page 6 2 From the Editor Lance C. Pérez In this issue of the IEEE Information Please help make the Newsletter as interesting and infor- Theory Society Newsletter we are fortu- mative as possible by offering suggestions and contribut- nate to feature an article entitled “Liv- ing news. The deadlines for the 2003 issues of the ing Information Theory” by Toby newsletter are as follows: Berger, the 2001 Shannon Award Win- Issue Deadline ner. This is a fascinating and provoca- tive article that expands on Toby’s well June 2003 April 22, 2003 received Shannon lecture at the 2002 September 2003 July 15, 2003 International Symposium on Informa- December 2003 October 15, 2003 Lance C. Pérez tion Theory in Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic submission, especially in ascii and Word for- The Information Theory Society news mats, is encouraged. I may be reached at the following address: continues to be bittersweet. Another IT Lance C. Pérez sage, Valery N. Koshelev, has passed Department of Electrical Engineering away and is rememebered in this issue. 209N Walter Scott Engineering Center At the same time, Michael B. Pursley, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln past president of the IT society, has Lincoln, NE 68588-0511 been honored with the IEEE Commu- Phone: (402)472-6258 nications Society Edwin Howard Fax: (402)472-4732 Armstrong Achievement Award. Email: [email protected] This issue of the Newsletter also marks Sincerely, the first appearing under the new IT Lance C. Pérez Society President Han Vinck. Han’s first President’s Column appears on page 4. Table of Contents IEEE LIVING INFORMATION THEORY: The 2002 Shannon Lecture . cover page From the Editor . 2 Information Theory Prague Floods and Information Theory: Urgent Call for Help . 3 Society Newsletter President’s Message . 4 Valery N. Koshelev (1932 - 2002) . .20 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Pursley Awarded the IEEE Communications Society Edwin Howard Armstrong (USPS 360-350) is published quarterly by the Achievement Award . 21 Information Theory Society of the Institute of From the Transactions Editor-in-Chief . 21 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Headquarters: 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, Historian’s Column. 27 New York, NY 10016-5997. Golomb’s Puzzle Column™: Facts About 2n . 28 Cost is $1.00 per member per year (included n in Society fee) for each member of the Infor- mation Theory Society. Printed in the U.S.A. Distinguished Lectures by new IEEE Fellows in Hong Kong . 28 Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices. New Senior Members . 29 Postmaster: Send address changes to IEEE In- Call for Nominations . 29 formation Theory Society Newsletter, IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Golomb’s Puzzle Column™: Early Bird Numbers - Solutions . 30 © 2003 IEEE. Information contained in this Call for Papers . 31 newsletter may be copied without permis- sion provided that the copies are not made Call for Papers . 32 or distributed for direct commercial advan- Call for Papers . 33 tage, and the title of the publication and its date appear. Conference Calendar . 35 IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter March 2003 3 Prague Floods and Information Theory: Urgent Call for Help The recent floods in the Czech Republic have had serious serious reconstruction of it needs to be done. Igor can hardly consequences for our Czech colleagues. The most important resume his scientific work at UTIA, the Institute of Informa- library for the mathematical sciences in the country - situ- tion Theory and Automation in Prague, where he holds a ated in the Karlin district at the Faculty of Mathematics and senior position. Physics of Charles University - was heavily damaged and The website http://siprint.utia.cas.cz/igor/ contains infor- around 400 journals and 10-50,000 book titles lost. Among mation on the losses suffered by Igor. Let us add that during the losses are Acta Informatica, Journal of Computing and the first critical hours, Igor and Zdenka — with several Information Technology, Problems of Control and Informa- friends and neighbours — tried to save the most important tion Theory, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IEEE things, but the water flooded the places assumed to be secure Transactions on Neural Networks, IEEE Transactions on Sig- in even the most pessimistic predictions. Thereafter, they nal Processing and many more journals in our or in neigh- could only look on powerlessly as their property vanished bouring areas. Also, several books written by members of under water. For illustration, the last 100-year flood — in our society have been lost. For further details, see 1890 — achieved a flow of 3970 m3/sec as compared to 5300 http://www.mff.cuni.cz/povoden/ where you can also see m3/sec on August 14, 2002. The photographs available at the lists of lost books and journals and get information on how to website help to convey the true extent of the catastrophe. donate money or send books and/or journals. The website lists a bank account number, set-up by Igor’s The undersigned participated in EMS2002, the 24th Euro- friends and former students in Prague, to which any dona- pean Meeting of Statisticians, held jointly with the 14th tion can be made. As Igor’s insurance contracts and the com- Prague Conference on Information Theory, Statistical Deci- mon support of the state appear to be entirely insufficient to sion Functions and Random Processes. The conference was cover such a disaster, any financial support would be of held in Prague immediately after the flood and participants great moral and practical value for Igor and his wife. The witnessed some of the damage done. website also contains a list of damaged and lost books, jour- At the personal level, what affected us most was the news nals and papers collected by Igor over the years. Some of that Igor Vajda has lost so much, if not everything of his pri- them are indispensable for Igor’s work in the immediate fu- vate property. Igor Vajda is a key member of our Society, Fel- ture. Any copy of the listed titles would be very helpful for low of IEEE, and a main contributor to the Information him. The list will be updated continuously. Theory/Statistics literature. He was also a key member of During EMS2002 a sum was collected both in support of the the EMS2002 Scientific Committee. However, due to the dra- library at Charles University and in support of Igor, person- matic events, he could not attend the EMS2002 himself.