Claude Elwood Shannon was born in Petoskey, Michigan, to Claude Elwood Shannon Sr., a businessman and briefly a judge, and Mabel Wolf Shannon, a language teacher. His early environment nurtured his intellectual curiosity.

Shannon displayed a fascination with mechanical and electrical devices from a young age. He built model airplanes, a radio-controlled model boat, and a telegraph system that connected his house to a friend's a half-mile away. This hands-on experience was crucial to his later theoretical work.

Shannon graduated from Gaylord High School, where he excelled in mathematics and science. He showed a particular aptitude for problem-solving and abstract thinking.

Shannon earned two Bachelor's degrees from the University of Michigan: one in electrical engineering and one in mathematics. This dual training provided him with a unique interdisciplinary perspective that proved invaluable to his future work in information theory.

Shannon obtained a Master's degree in electrical engineering from MIT. His master's thesis, 'A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits,' applied Boolean algebra to the design of electrical circuits. This work is considered one of the most important master's theses of the 20th century and laid the foundation for digital circuit design.

Shannon earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT. His doctoral dissertation, 'An Algebra for Theoretical Genetics,' demonstrated the breadth of his mathematical interests and his ability to apply abstract concepts to diverse fields.

After completing his PhD, Shannon held a National Research Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Here, he had the opportunity to interact with leading mathematicians and scientists, including Hermann Weyl and John von Neumann. He also worked briefly with Alan Turing during this period, shaping each others' ideas.