Burton Wendroff (born March 10, 1930) is an American applied mathematician known for his contributions to the development of numerical methods for the solution of

hyperbolic partial differential equation In mathematics, a hyperbolic partial differential equation of order n is a partial differential equation (PDE) that, roughly speaking, has a well-posed initial value problem for the first n-1 derivatives. More precisely, the Cauchy problem can be ...

s. The

Lax–Wendroff method The Lax–Wendroff method, named after Peter Lax and Burton Wendroff, is a numerical method for the solution of hyperbolic partial differential equations, based on finite difference A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . ...

for the solution of hyperbolic PDE is named for Wendroff (as well as for

Peter Lax Peter David Lax (born Lax Péter Dávid; 1 May 1926) is a Hungarian-born American mathematician and Abel Prize laureate working in the areas of pure and applied mathematics. Lax has made important contributions to integrable systems, fluid dyn ...

). Wendroff is an adjunct professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics,

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. He is also a retired fellow and associate at the

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ...

. Wendroff is a primary author of the chess program Lachex. Together with co-author Tony Warnock, Lachex competed at two World Computer Chess Championships at Cologne (1986) and Madrid (1992).

Career and research

Wendroff received his B.A. degree in mathematics and physics from the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

in 1951 and M.S. degree in mathematics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1952. After his M.S., Burt joined

as a staff member. While at Los Alamos, he went to New York University to do his Ph.D. and received the degree under the supervision of

in 1958. The title of his Ph.D. thesis was "Finite Difference Approximations to the Solutions of Partial Differential Equations". During 1966 to 1973, he served as a professor at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

. His primary area of research involves the development of numerical schemes for

s using

finite difference method In numerical analysis, finite-difference methods (FDM) are a class of numerical techniques for solving differential equations by approximating derivatives with finite differences. Both the spatial domain and time interval (if applicable) are di ...

. Together with Peter Lax, he has developed the now classical

. He has developed two-dimensional HLLE

Riemann solver A Riemann solver is a numerical method used to solve a Riemann problem. They are heavily used in computational fluid dynamics and computational magnetohydrodynamics. Definition Generally speaking, Riemann solvers are specific methods for computi ...

and associated Godunov-type difference scheme for

gas dynamics Compressible flow (or gas dynamics) is the branch of fluid mechanics that deals with flows having significant changes in fluid density. While all flows are compressible, flows are usually treated as being incompressible when the Mach number (the r ...

problems. Wendroff has also made contribution to the early development of convergence study of

finite element method The finite element method (FEM) is a popular method for numerically solving differential equations arising in engineering and mathematical modeling. Typical problem areas of interest include the traditional fields of structural analysis, heat ...

Awards and honors

Wendroff was elected as SIAM Fellow of

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific socie ...

for his "contributions to the numerical solution of

partial differential equation In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which imposes relations between the various partial derivatives of a Multivariable calculus, multivariable function. The function is often thought of as an "unknown" to be sol ...

s".

Selected publications

;Books *Theoretical Numerical Analysis,

Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier bought Harcourt in 2000, and Academic Press is now an imprint of Elsevier. Academic Press publishes reference ...

, 1966.Theoretical Numerical Analysis
/ref> *The Theory and Practice of Computation, Addison-Wesley, 1966. ;Articles * * * * * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendroff, Burton Living people 1930 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians New York University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni University of Denver faculty Numerical analysts Computational fluid dynamicists Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Los Alamos National Laboratory personnel