Professor remembered for innovative mind


Solomon Golomb, a professor of electrical engineering and mathematics who died May 1 at the age of 83, will be remembered for his groundbreaking work in communications theory.

“I found Sol to be a man of high character and integrity. He was certainly a wonderful father and husband. … Sol was very humble, and a very kind person,” said William Lindsey, a professor of electrical engineering. “On the mathematical side, he was likened to a Gauss or a Pascal or a Euler.”

After receiving his Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University, Golomb worked as the deputy chief of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Telecommunications Research Section before joining USC’s faculty in 1963. In his 53 years as a professor, Golomb established USC as a leading institution for communications research. He was a member of the “Magnificent Seven,” a group of the  top communications researchers at the University who founded the USC Communications Sciences Institute.

“He got recruited to USC, and he helped recruit a number of other people who were working at JPL and other areas as well, and there was this core faculty working on communications theory in the early ‘60s who made enormous advances,” said Todd Brun, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science. “At this point, there are only three left, so it’s kind of the passing of an era.”

Among his many contributions to the fields of communications and cryptography, Golomb defined polyominoes, the basis for the game Tetris, and developed techniques for analyzing shift register sequences. This research is integral to the function of cellphones and the internet today. He spoke several languages, including Hebrew and French, and was known for inventing mathematical games, including a variant of checkers called “cheskers.”

Robert Scholtz, a professor of electrical engineering, described Golomb’s mental acuity and diverse research interests.

“His mind never stopped working. I would suspect that he got three or four hours of sleep at night. He was always thinking about various kinds of problems — not just mathematical problems, though that was his specialty,” Scholtz said. “He spoke many languages, he was very interested in religion and history, and he had an almost-encyclopedic knowledge of everything in those areas.”

For his work in digital communications, Golomb was awarded the Franklin Institute’s 2016 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering. He was also presented with the National Medal of Science in 2013 from President Barack Obama. He served as president of the Faculty Senate and the vice provost for research. These contributions helped him earn the Presidential Medallion, USC’s highest honor for faculty members.

Beyond his own research, Golomb also advanced the department through recruitment. He recruited many researchers to USC’s electrical engineering faculty, including Lindsey and Lloyd Welch, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering. He also served as a mentor to Andrew Viterbi, later the namesake of the Viterbi School of Engineering, while working as his supervisor at JPL, a connection that forged a lifelong bond.

Brun spoke about the leadership and guidance Golomb demonstrated toward his colleagues and students.

“He was one of the most brilliant people I ever met. I think that was the impression of most people who knew him,” Brun said. “But Sol was also a mentor. I wouldn’t be here without him, so I’m very grateful to him. He was a very kind man, looked after his students and his colleagues, did a lot of service to USC, and that’s important too. It’s not just being the smartest guy in the room, but what you use that for and how you treat other people. And he was very high up there in that area as well.”

George Bekey, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering, recalled one memory that for him that to him summed up Golomb’s remarkable intellect and insight.

“I was walking with Dr. Golomb on the way to the faculty center one day, and for a good ten minutes, he was really quiet, he didn’t say a thing. Eventually, he turned and smiled, and I said, ‘So what are you thinking about?’. He said, ‘Oh, I was solving a mathematical problem in my head. That was Golomb,” Bekey said.

He is survived by his wife, Bodil, and his daughters, Astrid and Beatrice.