A very special edition of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) has just been published, paying tribute to one of the most influential figures in information theory: "Information Theory and Related Fields – Festschrift in Memory of Ning Cai".
The volume was edited by a distinguished team of researchers – Christian Deppe, Andreas Winter, Raymond W. Yeung, Holger Boche, Ingo Althöfer, Jens Stoye, Ulrich Tamm, and Rami Ezzine – all of whom had close professional ties to Prof. Ning Cai.
This Festschrift was created in connection with the Workshop on Information Theory and Related Fields – In Memory of Ning Cai, held from November 24 to 26, 2023, at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) in Bielefeld. Both the conference and the publication were supported by the cutting-edge research project 6G-life, which also contributed to the scientific content of the volume.
Prof. Ning Cai passed away on May 25, 2023. He was an outstanding mathematician, engineer, and computer scientist whose pioneering work in network coding helped launch an entirely new area of research. More than that, Cai was a true visionary whose passion for science and deep curiosity inspired collaborators across disciplines – from classical and quantum information theory to combinatorics, post-Shannon theory, and coding.
This special issue not only celebrates his legacy, but also showcases a range of exciting new research contributions – many of them rooted in ongoing work within the 6G-life project. It’s a volume that looks both back at a remarkable career and forward into the future of information theory.
For anyone in the field, this is a must-read – and a fitting tribute to a brilliant and deeply missed mind.