Gene H. Golub
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Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science (and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering) at Stanford University, was one of the preeminent numerical analysts of his generation.
Born in Chicago, he was educated at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, receiving his B.S. (1953), M.A. (1954) and Ph.D. (1959) all in the field of Mathematics[1]. 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 Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
One of his best-known books is Matrix Computations,[2] co-authored with Charles F. Van Loan. He was a major contributor to algorithms for matrix decompositions. In particular he published an algorithm together with William Kahan in 1970 that made the computation of the singular value decomposition (SVD) feasible and that is still used today. A survey of his work was published in 2007 by OUP as "Milestones in Matrix Computation".[3]
Golub was awarded the B. Bolzano Gold Medal for Merits in the Field of Mathematical Sciences and chosen as a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1993). He is listed as an ISI highly cited researcher.[4] He held several honorary degrees and was scheduled to receive an honorary degree from ETH Zürich on November 17, 2007.
Gene Golub succumbed to acute myeloid leukemia on the morning of 16 November 2007 at the Stanford Hospital.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Chen Greif, Gene H. Golub Biography, Online at Oxford University Press [1], accessed 24/11/2007
- ^ Golub, Gene H. & van Loan, Charles F. (1996), Matrix Computations, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press;, ISBN 978-0-8018-5414-9
- ^ Chan, Raymond; Greif, Dianne & O'Leary (2007), Milestones in Matrix Computation The selected works of Gene H. Golub with commentaries, Oxford University Press, ISBN 139780199206810
- ^ Thomson ISI, Golub, Gene H., ISI Highly Cited Researchers, <http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?id=2509&cb=23>. Retrieved on 17 November 2007
- ^ Moler, Cleve (2007-11-16), Gene Golub, 1932 - 2007, NA Digest, <http://www.netlib.org/na-digest-html/07/v07n47.html#1>. Retrieved on 17 November 2007
[edit] External links
- Home page at Stanford University (Archived version May 2007) [2]
- Gene H. Golub at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Gene H Golub Memorial page
- Gene Golub, Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 22 and 23, October, 2005, Stanford University. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PAsix hour interview covers full career - transcript online.
