Joy Aloysius Thomas (1 January 1963 – 28 September 2020) was an Indian-born American information theorist, author and a senior data scientist at Google. He was known for his contributions to information theory and was the co-author of Elements of Information Theory, a popular text book which he co-authored with Thomas M. Cover. He also held a number of patents and was the founder of startups such as 'Insights One'.
Joy A. Thomas | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 January 1963 Kerala, India |
| Died | 28 September 2020 (aged 57) |
| Occupation(s) | Information theorist, data scientist, author |
| Spouse | Priya |
| Children | Two children |
Biography edit
Joy Thomas, born on January 1, 1963, in the south Indian state of Kerala, did his schooling at St Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore.[1] He stood first in the IIT Joint Entrance Examination.[2] After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he migrated to the US where he continued his studies to secure a PhD from Stanford University in 1984.[3] It was here that he met Thomas M. Cover, the renowned information theorist,[4] and together they wrote a book in 1991, Elements of Information Theory, which is considered by many as a benchmark text book on the subject.[5][6] In 1990, he joined the IBM Research at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center as a research staff member where he worked until he became involved in the founding of Stratify, a startup founded in 1991, which was later rebranded as Iron Mountain Digital. Later, he founded InsightsOne, another startup which was subsequently acquired by Apigee in 2014.[7]
Joy Thomas was an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Stanford University and held a number of patents.[8] He died on September 28, 2020, at Mountain View, California, at the age of 57, survived by his wife, Priya, and children, Joshua and Leah.[1]
Patents edit
- "US Patent – API specification generation (Patent # 10,747,505 issued August 18, 2020) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent – Automatically extracting profile feature attribute data from event data (Patent # 10,255,300 issued April 9, 2019) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent – Method and apparatus for prediction of computer system performance based on types and numbers of active devices (Patent # 8,234,229 issued July 31, 2012) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent – Techniques for organizing data to support efficient review and analysis (Patent # 7,945,600 issued May 17, 2011) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent Application – Method and apparatus for prediction of computer system performance based on types and numbers of active devices (Application #20030023719 issued January 30, 2003) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent – Adaptive multiple dictionary data compression (Patent # 5,870,036 issued February 9, 1999) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "US Patent – Parallel compression and decompression using a cooperative dictionary (Patent # 5,729,228 issued March 17, 1998) – Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
Selected bibliography edit
Books edit
- Cover, Thomas M.; Thomas, Joy A. (11 July 2006). Elements of Information Theory. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-74881-6.
Articles edit
- Cover, Thomas M.; Thomas, A. (1988). "Determinant Inequalities via Information Theory". SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications. 9 (3): 384–392. doi:10.1137/0609033. ISSN 0895-4798.
- Dembo, A.; Cover, T.M.; Thomas, J.A. (1991). "Information theoretic inequalities". IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. 37 (6): 1501–1518. doi:10.1109/18.104312.
References edit
- ^ a b "India-born global expert in Information Theory, Joy Thomas, passes away in US". www.indiatechonline.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ Narayan, Shoba (28 January 2011). "A word of advice for the IITs". Mint. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
- ^ "Bloomberg profile". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ "ഇൻഫർമേഷൻ തിയറി വിദഗ്ധൻ ഡോ. ജോയ് തോമസ് അന്തരിച്ചു". ManoramaOnline (in Malayalam). Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ Andrew Myers (12 April 2012). "Thomas Cover, acclaimed information theorist and electrical engineer, dies at 73". Stanford University. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ Kieffer, John (1994). "Book Review-Elements of Information Theory (Thomas M. Cover and Joy A. Thomas)". SIAM Review. 36 (3): 509–511. doi:10.1137/1036124. ISSN 0036-1445.
- ^ "Apigee discloses $20M transaction after buying InsightsOne". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ "Joy Aloysius Thomas Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
External links edit
- "dblp: Joy A. Thomas". dblp.org. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "On Amazon". www.amazon.in. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- "Joy Thomas's Tribute to Thomas Cover". ISL Stanford. YouTube. 10 July 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2020.