David James Silvester (born 26 December 1958) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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

. He has a Chair in Numerical Analysis and is the Head of

Applied Mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathematical s ...

in the

Department of Mathematics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

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 ...

. Silvester was born in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

, but was educated at

Ysgol Ardudwy Ysgol Ardudwy is a bilingual secondary school for 11–16 year olds at Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales. It serves the seaside communities of Penrhyndeudraeth, Harlech, Abermaw (Barmouth) and nearby villages. It had 316 pupils on the roll in 2022. Welsh ...

(Wales) and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), from which he gained his B.Sc. in Mathematics (1980) and Ph.D. in Numerical Analysis (1983). His Ph.D. thesis (''An Analysis of Finite Element Approximation for Swirling Flow'') was supervised by Ronald Thatcher. He was appointed lecturer in Mathematics at UMIST in 1984, and later promoted to Senior Lecturer and Reader. In 2003 he was promoted to a personal Chair of Numerical Analysis. Silvester held visiting positions in the Computer Science Department at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

in 1991 (as a Fulbright Senior Fellow) and in 1999, at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

(1994), the

University of the Littoral Opal Coast The University of the Littoral Opal Coast (French: ''Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale''; ULCO) is a public university located in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments of northern France. Its namesake is the Opal Coast region, of which it i ...

(2009), and the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

(2019). Silvester is best known for his work on finite element methods, fast iterative solvers for fluid dynamics, and uncertainty quantification. He has more than 65 refereed publications on topics such as iterative solution of Stokes and Navier–Stokes systems, preconditioning, and error estimation in finite element methods. Silvester's books include ''Finite Elements and Fast Iterative Solvers: With Applications in Incompressible Fluid Dynamics'' and ''Essential Partial Differential Equations''. Silvester has served as the elected President of the UK and Republic of Ireland section of 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 ...

(2009–2011). He is on the editorial board of the ''Journal of Scientific Computing''.

References

External links

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Silvester, David 1958 births Living people Academics of the University of Manchester Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians Numerical analysts People from Dumfries