May 6th, 2009 |
Wesley Peterson, PhD passed away quietly around 2pm Hawaiian Standard Time today (May 6, 2009). He is best known for his 1964 paper on the mathematical representation of data for error correction. This ground breaking work became the basis for all modern error correction algorithms and data encryption. He received the Japan Award in 1994 for this work with the presentation being done by the Emperor of Japan.
Teaching all the way to the end, Dr. Peterson would have liked it that way. I will certainly miss my professor from both my undergraduate and graduate programs.
He was one of my favorite professors at UH. I took both his data structures and data security courses. Definitely one of the best CS instructors at UH.
“He is best known for his 1964 paper on the mathematical representation of data for error correction.”
Published in 1961, not 1964.
I took my first computer science class from him. He was a brilliant guy with some unusual abilities. He could read the punched holes on paper tape and count the number of punched cards that ran through a card-reader just by listening to them go through.
He sparked my interest in computer science. Peterson was a great educator and will surely be missed.
Dr. Wes Peterson was as much a mentor to me as he was an instructor. I took six courses from him because I had stumbled across a lot of his research he had done first at IBM Labs, then at Bell Labs. How often does one get to study under a legend in the Comp Sci industry? Even when he was at U.H. he regularly communicated with Dennis Ritchie (the famous “R” in the K&R C Language text). My 20 year high tech career was built on a solid foundation through his instruction.
I took my C++ and web security course from him and he was in my eyes the best ICS professor at UH. I actually learned alot from him even though we only met once a week. I took advantage using e-mails and meeting him after class for help. His assignments were also fun to do. I would finish them way before the due date because I couldn’t resist the temptation. This news saddens me alot because I owe him for going beyond teaching for the sake of just money.