Gene H. Golub
Encyclopedia
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, was one of the preeminent numerical analysts
Numerical analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis ....
of his generation.
Born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, he was educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, receiving his B.S. (1953), M.A. (1954) and Ph.D. (1959) all in mathematics. His M.A. degree was more specifically in Mathematical Statistics. His PhD dissertation was entitled "The Use of Chebyshev Matrix Polynomials in the Iterative Solution of Linear Equations Compared to the Method of Successive Overrelaxation" and his thesis adviser was Abraham Taub. He had been at Stanford since 1962 and became a professor there in 1970. He had advised almost thirty doctoral students, many of whom have themselves achieved distinction. Gene Golub was an important figure in numerical analysis and pivotal to creating the NA-Net and the NA-Digest, as well as the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics
International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics
The International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics is an international congress in the field of applied mathematics held every four years under the auspices of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics...
.
One of his best-known books is Matrix Computations,
co-authored with Charles F. Van Loan
Charles F. Van Loan
Charles Francis Van Loan is a professor of computer science and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, known for his expertise in numerical analysis, especially matrix computations.-Biography:...
. He was a major contributor to algorithms for matrix decompositions. In particular he published an algorithm together with William Kahan
William Kahan
William Morton Kahan is a mathematician and computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1989 for "his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis", and was named an ACM Fellow in 1994....
in 1970 that made the computation of the singular value decomposition
Singular value decomposition
In linear algebra, the singular value decomposition is a factorization of a real or complex matrix, with many useful applications in signal processing and statistics....
(SVD) feasible and that is still used today. A survey of his work was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
as "Milestones in Matrix Computation".
Golub was awarded the B. Bolzano Gold Medal for Merits in the Field of Mathematical Sciences and was one of the rare few elected to three national academies: the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(1993), the National Academy of Engineering (1990), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(1994). He was also a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien , founded in 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
(1986).
He is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher
ISI highly cited researcher
ISI Highly Cited is a database of "highly cited researchers"—scientific researchers whose publications are most often cited in academic journals over the past decade, published by the Institute for Scientific Information...
. He held 11 honorary doctorates and was scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from ETH Zürich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
on November 17, 2007. He was a visiting professor at Princeton (1970), MIT (1979), ETH (1974 & 2002), and Oxford (1982 & 1998).
Gene Golub served as the president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics was founded by a small group of mathematicians from academia and industry who met in Philadelphia in 1951 to start an organization whose members would meet periodically to exchange ideas about the uses of mathematics in industry. This meeting led...
(SIAM) from 1985 to 1987 and was founding editor of both the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
The SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing , formerly SIAM Journal on Scientific & Statistical Computing, is a scientific journal focusing on the research articles on numerical methods and techniques for scientific computation. It is published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics...
(SISC) and the SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications
SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications
The SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering matrix analysis and its applications. The relevant applications include signal processing, systems and control theory, statistics, Markov chains, and mathematical biology.The journal is published...
(SIMAX).
The bulk of Gene Golub's research work was collaborative. He had at least 181 distinct co-authors
and the number may still increase as co-authored papers keep appearing posthumously.
Gene Golub succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia , also known as acute myelogenous leukemia, is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells that accumulate in the bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal blood cells. AML is the most common acute...
on the morning of 16 November 2007 at the Stanford Hospital.
External links
- Home page at Stanford University (Archived version May 2007) http://web.archive.org/web/20070513111448/http://sccm.stanford.edu/faculty/nf-golub.html
- Gene H Golub Memorial page
- Oral history interview with Gene H. Golub, Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota. Interview by Pamela McCorduckPamela McCorduckPamela McCorduck is the author of a number of books concerning the history and philosophical significance of artificial intelligence, the future of engineering and the role of women and technology. She is also the author of three novels. She is a contributor to Omni, New York Times, Daedalus, the...
, 16 May 1979, Stanford, California. - Gene Golub, Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 22-23 October 2005, Stanford University. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA, six hour interview covers full career - transcript online.
- Gene Golub in pictures around the world.