Harry Nyquist

Harry Nyquist is best known for his foundational work in establishing the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem. This theorem mathematically determines the minimum rate at which a continuous analog signal must be sampled to be accurately converted into digital data without losing information.

Yes, Harry Nyquist spent the entirety of his lengthy professional career as an electrical engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs). During his 37 years there, he heavily influenced modern telecommunications, feedback amplifier design, and early television technology.

The Nyquist frequency is defined as exactly half of the sampling rate of a digital signal processing system. For example, to accurately record a CD-quality audio signal that contains frequencies up to 20,000 Hz, the system must sample at a rate of at least 40,000 Hz, a principle heavily relied upon in modern digital audio.

Harry Nyquist was born in Sweden in 1889 and immigrated to the United States in 1907. He published his most critical papers on thermal noise and signal stability in the late 1920s and 1930s, long before the invention of the modern digital computer.