David Slepian

David S. Slepian (June 30, 1923 – November 29, 2007) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work with algebraic coding theory, probability theory, and distributed source coding. He was colleagues with Claude Shannon and Richard Hamming at Bell Labs.

David Slepian
David Slepian teaching Information Theory
Born(1923-06-30)June 30, 1923
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
DiedNovember 29, 2007(2007-11-29) (aged 84)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
University of Michigan
Known forAlgebraic coding theory
AwardsIEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (1981)
IEEE Centennial Medal (1984)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsBell Telephone Laboratories
Thesis (1949)

Life and work

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he gained a B.Sc. at University of Michigan before joining the US Army in World War II, as a sonic deception officer in the Ghost army. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1949, writing his dissertation in physics. After post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge and University of Sorbonne, he worked at the Mathematics Research Center at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he pioneered work in algebraic coding theory on group codes, first published in the paper A Class of Binary Signaling Alphabets. Here, he also worked along with other information theory giants such as Claude Shannon and Richard Hamming. He also proved the possibility of singular detection, a perhaps unintuitive result. He is also known for Slepian's lemma in probability theory (1962), and for discovering a fundamental result in distributed source coding called Slepian–Wolf coding with Jack Keil Wolf (1973).

He later joined the University of Hawaiʻi. His father was Joseph Slepian, also a scientist.[1] His wife is the noted children's author Jan Slepian.

Slepians
Three examples of Slepians, named after David Slepian.

Slepian's joint work with H.J. Landau and H.O. Pollak on discrete prolate spheroidal wave functions and sequences (DPSWF, DPSS) eventually led to the naming of the sequences as "Slepians".[2][3][4][5][6] The naming suggestion was provided by Bob Parker of Scripp's Institute of Oceanography, who suggested that "discrete prolate spheroidal sequences" was a "mouthful".

This work was fundamental to the development of the multitaper, where the discrete form are used as an integral component.

Awards

References
  1. "IEEE Global History Network - David Slepian". IEEE. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  2. "Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions, Fourier Analysis and Uncertainty -- I" (PDF). BSTJ. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  3. "Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions, Fourier Analysis and Uncertainty -- II" (PDF). BSTJ. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  4. "Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions, Fourier Analysis and Uncertainty -- III: The Dimension of the Space of Essentially Time- and Band-Limited Signals" (PDF). BSTJ. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  5. "Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions, Fourier Analysis and Uncertainty -- IV: Extensions to Many Dimensions; Generalized Prolate Spheroidal Functions" (PDF). BSTJ. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  6. "Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions, Fourier Analysis and Uncertainty -- V: The Discrete Case" (PDF). BSTJ. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  7. "Claude E. Shannon Award". IEEE Information Theory Society. Archived from the original on June 30, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  8. "NAE Members Directory - Dr. David Slepian". United States National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  9. "Search Deceased Member Data". United States National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
  10. "IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
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