description Thomas Cover Overview
Thomas M. Cover (1938–2012) was a longtime professor at Stanford University in electrical engineering and statistics. With Joy Thomas, he co-authored 'Elements of Information Theory,' a standard graduate text. His research spanned information theory, statistics, pattern recognition, and universal portfolios, including the Cover–Hart nearest-neighbor theorem and contributions to data compression.
He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.
insights Ranking position
Thomas Cover ranks #60 of 185 in the Computer Scientist ranking, behind Stephen Boyd, ahead of Taher ElGamal.
help Thomas Cover FAQ
What is 'Elements of Information Theory' and who co-authored it?
'Elements of Information Theory,' co-authored by Thomas Cover and Joy Thomas, is one of the most widely used graduate textbooks in information theory, first published in 1991. It covers entropy, channel capacity, rate-distortion theory, and network information theory, and is now in its second edition.
What is Thomas Cover's contribution to information theory research?
Cover made foundational contributions including work on the capacity of multiple antenna channels, universal portfolios, and data compression. His 1972 paper on broadcast channels helped establish network information theory as a field.
What was Thomas Cover's famous result about prediction and gambling?
Cover developed the universal portfolio strategy, a mathematical approach to investment that achieves performance competitive with the best constant-rebalanced portfolio chosen in hindsight. This work connected information theory with universal prediction and sequential decision-making.
Where did Thomas Cover work?
Thomas Cover was a professor of Electrical Engineering and Statistics at Stanford University from 1964 until his death in 2012. He received his PhD from Stanford under Norman Abramson.
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