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Richard Hamming

Mathematician at Bell Labs who invented error-correcting Hamming codes

11 February 1915 – 7 January 1998 United States Verified by our editors
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Lived
82 yrs
1915 – 1998
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3
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Richard Hamming was an American mathematician who invented the Hamming codes, the first practical error-correcting codes, while at Bell Labs. His ideas are used in computer memory, data transmission and storage, and he received the Turing Award in 1968.

Biography

Manhattan Project

Hamming studied at the University of Chicago, the University of Nebraska and the University of Illinois. In 1945 he joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, where he programmed the calculating machines used to check the physics of the atomic bomb.

Error-correcting codes

At Bell Labs from 1946, Hamming grew frustrated that the relay computers stopped whenever they detected an error. In 1950 he published a method of adding check bits so that a machine could find and correct a single wrong bit automatically. These Hamming codes, and the related Hamming distance between two strings, became basic tools of coding theory.

Numerical methods and teaching

He also worked on numerical analysis and digital filters, and wrote influential textbooks. After 30 years at Bell Labs he taught at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, until shortly before his death in 1998.

“You and Your Research”

Hamming’s 1986 talk on why some scientists do great work and others do not — choosing important problems, working with the door open, and preparing for luck — is still widely read by researchers and engineers.

Timeline

  1. 1915

    Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States

  2. 1945

    Joins the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos

  3. 1946

    Joins Bell Telephone Laboratories

  4. 1950

    Publishes error-detecting and error-correcting codes

  5. 1968

    Receives the Turing Award

  6. 1976

    Moves to the Naval Postgraduate School

  7. 1986

    Gives the talk “You and Your Research”

  8. 1997

    Publishes The Art of Doing Science and Engineering

  9. 1998

    Died, aged 82

Notable works

  • 1950

    Error Detecting and Error Correcting Codes Paper

    Bell System Technical Journal.

  • 1962

    Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers Book

  • 1997

    The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Book

    Based on his course at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Awards and honours

  • Turing Award

    1968

  • Harold Pender Award

    1981

  • IEEE Hamming Medal

    1988 · First recipient of the medal named after him.

Did you know?

  1. 1

    Error-correcting memory (ECC RAM) in servers is based on ideas from his codes.

  2. 2

    He worked alongside Claude Shannon at Bell Labs in the years when Shannon founded information theory.

  3. 3

    He was known for asking colleagues, “What are the important problems in your field?”

Connections

Related people

Also born on 11 February

Frequently asked

Who is Richard Hamming?

Richard Hamming was an American mathematician who invented the Hamming codes, the first practical error-correcting codes, while at Bell Labs. His ideas are used in computer memory, data transmission and storage, and he received the Turing Award in 1968.

When did Richard Hamming die?

Richard Hamming died on 7 January 1998 at the age of 82.

Where is Richard Hamming from?

Richard Hamming was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

What is Richard Hamming known for?

Richard Hamming is best known for Hamming codes; Hamming distance; Turing Award 1968; the lecture “You and Your Research”.

What awards has Richard Hamming received?

Notable honours include Turing Award (1968), Harold Pender Award (1981), IEEE Hamming Medal (1988).

References

  1. Richard Hamming — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Richard Hamming — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Richard Hamming — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Richard Hamming (Q92619) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Richard Hamming”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Wikipedia
Filed under Bell LabsInformation theoryTuring Award Computer ScientistMathematician

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Cite this page

“Richard Hamming.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/richard-hamming

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