Thomas M. Cover was a distinguished information theorist and professor who held joint appointments in the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Statistics at Stanford University. Born in San Bernardino, California in 1938, he earned his B.S. in Physics from MIT in 1960 and completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in 1964 under Norman Abramson. He joined the Stanford faculty immediately after his doctorate in 1964, becoming a full professor in 1972 and later serving as Director of the Information Systems Laboratory from 1988 to 1996. In 1994, he was honored with the prestigious Kwoh-Ting Li Professorship of Engineering, recognizing his exceptional contributions to the field.
Cover's seminal contributions to information theory fundamentally transformed the understanding of communication systems and statistical learning. His groundbreaking 1965 work on the capacity of pattern classification and his elegant 1975 proof of the Slepian-Wolf theorem for distributed coding established foundational principles that continue to shape modern communication theory. His 1972 paper on broadcast channels earned the Outstanding Paper Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society and revolutionized how information could be transmitted from one transmitter to multiple receivers simultaneously. Perhaps his most enduring contribution was co-authoring with Joy A. Thomas the landmark textbook 'Elements of Information Theory,' first published in 1991, which quickly became the definitive introduction to the field and has educated generations of researchers worldwide.
Throughout his illustrious career, Cover profoundly influenced the development of information theory through his mentorship of 64 Ph.D. students and his leadership as President of the IEEE Information Theory Society. His innovative work extended beyond traditional information theory into diverse areas including portfolio theory, pattern recognition, and lottery systems, where he served as a statistician for the California State Lottery from 1986 to 1994. Recognized with numerous honors including the 1990 Shannon Lectureship (the highest honor in information theory) and the 1997 IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, Cover's legacy continues to inspire researchers across multiple disciplines. The profound impact of his theoretical insights remains evident in contemporary applications ranging from wireless communications to machine learning, cementing his status as one of the most influential figures in the development of modern information science.
