Claude Elwood Shannon was an American mathematician, cryptographer, and electrical engineer, who garnered fame when he conceptualised information theory with the landmark paper, ‘Mathematical Theory of Communication’, which he put out in 1948. Because of this, he is widely considered "the father of information theory". Originally from Michigan, Shannon grew up inspired by Thomas Edison, who he later came to know was one of his relatives. He was educated at the University of Michigan from where he obtained bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering before enrolling in MIT to continue his education in electrical engineering. He also came up with the digital circuit design theory in 1937. During World War II, he was hired by Bell Labs to research on fire-control systems and cryptography. In 1942, he received the credits for the creation of signal-flow graphs. In 1956, he became part of the MIT faculty and worked in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). Shannon was affiliated with the institute until 1978. In later years, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and lived in a nursing home in Massachusetts. At the age of 84, Shannon passed away in February 2001.