Norbert Wiener

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Norbert Wiener (Rosen Studios/NYPR Archives)

Norbert Wiener was a giant in the field of statistics and the creator of cybernetics.

Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 — March 18, 1964) was born in Columbia, Missouri and grew up in the Boston area, where he graduated from Tufts University at age fourteen. He studied under Bertrand Russell in Cambridge and took mathematics courses in Germany, returning to the U.S. just before the outbreak of WWI. While at MIT as mathematics professor he developed cybernetics, "in essence a statistical approach to the theory of communication." Wiener also made significant contributions to many fields, from quantum theory to gunfire control.