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person1968–2019

Elwyn Berlekamp

Disciplines:
mathematics
mathematics/game theory
computer science/error-correcting codes

Summary

American mathematician and Berkeley professor, co-inventor of the Berlekamp-Welch algorithm and co-author of Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, who briefly ran Renaissance Technologies and reoriented the Medallion Fund toward short-term trading.

Core Contribution

Reoriented the Medallion Fund's strategy from long-term trend following to short-term mean reversion — the insight that short-term price inefficiencies were more predictable than long-term patterns — transforming the fund's performance in the late 1980s.

Notable Works & Achievements

Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays

Historical Influences

Claude Shannon

Intellectual Lineage

Berkeley Mathematical ResearchInformation Theory and Coding

Contemporaries & Peers

Jim Simons James Ax

Minds Influenced

Jim Simons Renaissance Technologies research culture

Intellectual Posterity

Medallion Fund short-term trading strategyBerlekamp-Massey algorithm

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Elwyn Berlekamp

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