Jorma Rissanen

Rissanen was born in Pielisjärvi (now Lieksa) in Finland and grew up in Kemi, a border town between Finland and Sweden. He moved to Helsinki and studied at the Helsinki University of Technology, where he obtained his master's degree in electrical engineering in 1956 and licentiate in control theory in 1960. He studied there under Olli Lokki and Hans Blomberg.) and universal coding/modeling. After retirement from IBM, he remained professor emeritus of Tampere University of Technology and a fellow of Helsinki Institute for Information Technology. == Awards and recognitions ==

He was awarded the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal in 1993, an IEEE Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the IEEE Information Theory Society in 1998, the Kolmogorov Medal of the University of London in 2006, and the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award in 2009. A Festschrift collection, which includes an interview and substantial biographical information, was published by the Tampere University of Technology in honor of his 75th birthday. == Personal life ==

Rissanen married Riitta Åberg in 1956, and they have a son Juhani and a daughter Natasha. == Bibliography ==