The Lee-Wiener legacy [statistical theory of communication]

The Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was the home of many famous scientists and engineers in the days following World War II. One of the lesser known heroes of this era was Yuk Wing Lee, a student of Norbert Wiener in the late 1920s, who led an important research group in statistical communication theory. Lee's own contributions, although significant, are not well known. However, his contributions to teaching and bringing the ideas of Wiener into electrical engineering are without precedent. This article describes the activities of Lee, Wiener, and the many well-known students of Lee who contributed and shaped the area of statistical signal processing and communications.