Marcel J. E. Golay
Encyclopedia
Marcel J.E. Golay was a Swiss-born mathematician
, physicist
, and information theorist
, who applied mathematics to real-world military and industrial problems. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland
.
at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
("ETH" in German
) in Zürich
, joining Bell laboratories in New York
in 1924. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago
in 1931.
Leaving Bell labs, Golay joined the US Army Signal Corps, eventually rising to the post of Chief Scientist. He was based mostly in Fort Monmouth
, New Jersey
.
In 1963, Golay joined the Perkin-Elmer company as Senior Research Scientist. Golay worked on many problems, including gas chromatography and optical spectroscopy. He remained with Perkin-Elmer for the rest of his life.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, and information theorist
Information theory
Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Information theory was developed by Claude E. Shannon to find fundamental limits on signal processing operations such as compressing data and on reliably storing and...
, who applied mathematics to real-world military and industrial problems. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Career
Golay studied electrical engineeringElectrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
("ETH" in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
) in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, joining Bell laboratories in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1924. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
in 1931.
Leaving Bell labs, Golay joined the US Army Signal Corps, eventually rising to the post of Chief Scientist. He was based mostly in Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth
Fort Monmouth was an installation of the Department of the Army in Monmouth County, New Jersey. The post is surrounded by the communities of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and is located about 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The post covers nearly of land, from the Shrewsbury...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.
In 1963, Golay joined the Perkin-Elmer company as Senior Research Scientist. Golay worked on many problems, including gas chromatography and optical spectroscopy. He remained with Perkin-Elmer for the rest of his life.
Achievements
- Co-author with Abraham SavitzkyAbraham SavitzkyAbraham Savitzky was an American analytical chemist.He specialized in the digital processing of infrared spectra and was awarded seven patents in that field. While employed by Perkin-Elmer, Savitzky coauthored with Marcel J. E. Golay an oft-cited paper describing the Savitzky-Golay Smoothing...
of the Savitzky-Golay smoothing filter. - Development of the Golay codes.
- Generalization of the perfect binaryBinary numeral systemThe binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2...
Hamming codeHamming codeIn telecommunication, Hamming codes are a family of linear error-correcting codes that generalize the Hamming-code invented by Richard Hamming in 1950. Hamming codes can detect up to two and correct up to one bit errors. By contrast, the simple parity code cannot correct errors, and can detect only...
s to non-binary codes. - Inventor of the Golay cellGolay CellThe Golay cell is a type of opto-acoustic detector mainly used for infrared spectroscopy. It consists of a gas-filled enclosure with an infrared absorbing material and a flexible diaphragm or membrane. When infrared radiation is absorbed, it heats the gas, causing it to expand. The resulting...
, a type of infraredInfraredInfrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
detector. - He introduced complementary sequencesComplementary sequencesIn applied mathematics, complementary sequences are pairs of sequences with the useful property that their out-of-phase aperiodic autocorrelation coefficients sum to zero. Binary complementary sequences were first introduced by Marcel J. E. Golay in 1949...
. Those are pairs of binary sequences whose autocorrelation functions add up to zero for all non-zero time shifts. Today they are used in various WiFi and 3G standards.
Significant bibliography
- Notes on Digital Coding, Proc. IRE, vol. 37, p. 657, (1949)
- Sieves for Low Autocorrelation Binary Sequences, IEEE Trans. Info. Theory, vol. IT-23, pp. 43-51 (1977)
- Preparative Capillary Chromatography - A Proposal, Journal of High Resolution Chromatography & Chromatography Communications, Vol. 11, pp 6-8 (1988)
- Complementary series, IRE Transactions on Information Theory, Volume: 7, Issue: 2, pp. 82-87 (1961) .