The Richard W. Hamming Collection at Dudley Knox Library

The Richard W. Hamming collection at Dudley Knox Library provides a unique view into the thinking and teaching style of computer pioneer Dr. Richard W. Hamming, who taught as an NPS computer science professor from 1976-1998. 

Richard Hamming (1915-1998) was one of the world’s most distinguished computer scientists, best known for his work in coding and information theory (Hamming code), digital filers (Hamming spectral window) and numerical methods. He was director of the Manhattan Project computing facility and later, at Bell Labs, introduced error-correcting codes and performed pioneering work in operating systems and programming languages.

The library's Richard W. Hamming collection includes his annotated papers from 1947-1997, scientific medals and awards such as the Piore Award, Turing Prize and IEEE Hamming Medal, lecture videos, diaries and photographs.

A finding aid to the Richard W. Hamming Collection is available here.  

From the archive...

Read Prof. Hamming's handwritten notes, "On Responsibility".
 View "Learning to Learn: Art of Science and Engineering", the course, including lectures on video.

Explore more digitized materials from this collection in the NPS Archive, Calhoun.

Richard Hamming Legacy Project

The Richard Wesley Hamming Legacy Project: Richard Wesley Hamming: Man, Mathematician, and Mentor (56:29) (2019)

Speaker: Dr. Martin Mandelberg (NPS, 1982), with additional commentary by Prof. Don Brutzman. A presentation on the legacy of NPS Professor Richard Wesley Hamming through interpretation of Hamming’s archives. Includes the introduction of the online archive of Hamming materials which will feature digitally remastered videos of NPS classes taught by Hamming, and significant previously unavailable research findings, soon-to-be-available through the NPS Archive, Calhoun.

Richard Wesley Hamming: A Mentor at Work by Dr. Martin Mandelberg (45:45) (2018)

Speaker: Dr. Martin Mandelberg. In 2018, a group of Prof. Hamming's colleagues and present-day NPS students, faculty and staff gathered to share in a tribute to him by Dr. Mandelberg, founder of the Richard Hamming Legacy Project. Mandelberg, a 1982 NPS graduate and Hamming's only Ph.D advisee, is the author of a biography, Richard Wesley Hamming: Man, Mathematician, and Mentor.

See Dr. Mandelberg's Richard Wesley Hamming Legacy Project in progress.