Charles Francis Van Loan (born September 20, 1947) is an emeritus professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

,Cornell CS Annual Report 1998-1999
He is known for his expertise in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...

, especially

matrix Matrix most commonly refers to: * ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise ** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film ** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...

computations. In 2016, Van Loan became the Dean of Faculty at Cornell University.

Biography

Originally from

Orange, New Jersey The City of Orange is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 30,134, reflecting a decline of 2,734 (−8.3%) from the 32,868 counted in 2000. Orange was original ...

, Van Loan attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he obtained the B.S. in applied mathematics (1969) and the M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) in mathematics. His PhD dissertation was entitled "Generalized Singular Values with Algorithms and Applications" and his thesis adviser was

Cleve Moler Cleve Barry Moler is an American mathematician and computer programmer specializing in numerical analysis. In the mid to late 1970s, he was one of the authors of LINPACK and EISPACK, Fortran libraries for numerical computing. He invented MATLA ...

. Following a postdoctorate at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

, he joined the Department of Computer Science at

in 1975, and served as the Department Chair from 1999 to 2006. During the 1988–1989 academic year, Van Loan taught at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

for his sabbatical. Van Loan ran the Computer Science Graduate Program from 1982 to 1987 at Cornell and was the Director of the Undergraduate Studies from 1994 to 1998 and 1999–2003. He was awarded the Ford chair in 1998. He held the position of chairman from July 1999 to June 2006. In the spring of 2016, Van Loan retired from the Computer Science Department and was promoted to Dean of Faculty, replacing Joseph Burns. Van Loan is the first emeritus professor to hold the position of Dean of Faculty.

Honors and awards

Van Loan won the Robert Paul Advising Award in 1998 and the James and Martha D. McCormick Advising Award in 2003. Other awards Van Loan won include the Merrill Scholar Faculty Impact Award in 1998 and 2009 and the James and Mary Tien Teaching Award, College of Engineering in 2009. In 2018 he was awarded the

John von Neumann Lecture The John von Neumann Prize (until 2019 named John von Neumann Lecture Prize) was established in 1959 with funds from IBM and other industry corporations, and is awarded for "outstanding and distinguished contributions to the field of applied ma ...

prize by the

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 ...

Books

Van Loan's best-known book is ''Matrix Computations, 3/e'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, ), written with

Gene H. Golub Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), was an American numerical analysis, numerical analyst who taught at Stanford University as Fletcher R. Jones, Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and held a courtesy appointmen ...

. He is also the author of ''Handbook for Matrix Computations'' (

SIAM Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

, 1988, ), ''Computational Frameworks for the Fast Fourier Transform'' (

, 1992, ), ''Introduction to Computational Science and Mathematics'' (Jones and Bartlett, 1996, ), and ''Introduction to Scientific Computation: A Matrix-Vector Approach Using MATLAB'' (2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1999, ). His latest book is ''Insight Through Computing: A MATLAB Introduction to Computational Science and Engineering'' (

, 2009, ) written with K-Y Daisy Fan.

References

External links

Home page at Cornell University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Loan, Charles F. Living people Numerical analysts Mathematicians from New Jersey University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Cornell University faculty Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 1947 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American people of Dutch descent People from Orange, New Jersey