Gene Howard Golub (February 29, 1932 – November 16, 2007), was an American
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 ...
who taught 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 ...
as
Fletcher Jones Professor of Computer Science and held a courtesy appointment in electrical engineering.
Personal life
Born in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, he was educated at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
, 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. Gene Golub succumbed to
acute myeloid leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, characterized by the rapid growth of abnormal cells that build up in the bone marrow and blood and interfere with normal blood cell production. Symptoms may includ ...
on the morning of 16 November 2007 at the Stanford Hospital.
Stanford University
He arrived at Stanford in 1962 and became a professor there in 1970. He advised more than 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.
One of his best-known books is ''Matrix Computations'',
co-authored with
Charles F. Van Loan
Charles Francis Van Loan (born September 20, 1947) is an emeritus professor of computer science and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, . He was a major contributor to algorithms for
matrix decomposition
In the mathematical discipline of linear algebra, a matrix decomposition or matrix factorization is a factorization of a matrix into a product of matrices. There are many different matrix decompositions; each finds use among a particular class of ...
s. In particular he published an algorithm together with
William Kahan
William "Velvel" Morton Kahan (born June 5, 1933) is a Canadian mathematician and computer scientist, who received the Turing Award in 1989 for "''his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis''",
was named an ACM Fellow in 1994, and inducte ...
in 1970 that made the computation of the
singular value decomposition
In linear algebra, the singular value decomposition (SVD) is a factorization of a real or complex matrix. It generalizes the eigendecomposition of a square normal matrix with an orthonormal eigenbasis to any \ m \times n\ matrix. It is related ...
(SVD) feasible and that is still used today. A survey of his work was published in 2007 by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
as "Milestones in Matrix Computation".
Recognition
Golub was awarded the B. Bolzano Gold Medal for Merits in the Field of Mathematical Sciences and was one of the few elected to three national academies: the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
(1993), the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...
(1990), and the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
(1994). He was also a Foreign Member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences or ''Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien'' (IVA), founded on 24 October 1919 by King Gustaf V, is one of the royal academies in Sweden. The academy is an independent organisation, which promo ...
(1986).
He is listed as an
ISI highly cited researcher
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) was an academic publishing service, founded by Eugene Garfield in Philadelphia in 1956. ISI offered scientometric and bibliographic database services. Its specialty was citation indexing and analysis, ...
. He held 11 honorary doctorates and was scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from
ETH Zürich
(colloquially)
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, rector = Günther Dissertori
, president = Joël Mesot
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on November 17, 2007. He was a visiting professor at Princeton (1970), MIT (1979), ETH (1974 & 2002), and Oxford (1982, 1998 & 2007).
Gene Golub served as the president 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 ...
(SIAM) from 1985 to 1987 and was founding editor of both the
SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing
The ''SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing'' (''SISC''), 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 ...
(SISC) and the
SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications
The ''SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications'' (until 1989: ''SIAM Journal on Algebraic and Discrete Methods'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering matrix analysis and its applications. The relevant applications include sign ...
(SIMAX).
Most of 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.
Selected publications
Articles
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Books
* with
Charles Van Loan
Charles Francis Van Loan (born September 20, 1947) is an emeritus professor of computer science and the Joseph C. Ford Professor of Engineering at Cornell University, : ''Matrix Computations'' (= ''Johns Hopkins Series in the Mathematical Sciences.'' 3). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1983, ISBN 0-8018-3010-9; 2nd edition 1989; 3rd edition 1996
4th edition 2013* ''Studies in Numerical Analysis.'' Mathematical Association of America, 1985, 426 pages.
* with James M. Ortega
Academic Press, Boston MA etc. 1992, ISBN 0-12-289255-0.
* with James M. Ortega: ''Scientific Computing: An Introduction with Parallel Computing.'' Academic Press, 1993
* with Moody T. Chu
''Inverse Eigenvalue problems. Theory, algorithms, and applications.''Oxford University Press, Oxford etc. 2005, ISBN 0-19-856664-6.
''Milestones in Matrix Computation: The Selected Works of Gene H. Golub with Commentaries.''Oxford University Press, 2007.
* with Gérard Meurant
''Matrices, Moments and Quadrature with Applications.''Princeton University Press, 2009,
References
External links
*
*Oral history interviews with Gene H. Golub,
Charles Babbage Institute
The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...
, University of Minnesota. Interview by
Pamela McCorduck
Pamela Ann McCorduck (October 27, 1940 – October 18, 2021) was a British-born American author of books about the history and philosophical significance of artificial intelligence, the future of engineering, and the role of women and technolog ...
16 May 1979an
8 June 1979 Stanford, California.
22–23 October 2005, Stanford University. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA, six-hour interview covers full career - transcript online.
Gene Golub Papers*"Because of space limitations... Master bibliography of matrix computation (pdf, 565 Kbytes, 66 pages) is online" from 4th edition (2013) of "Matrix computations"
Dianne P. O'Leary, "Gene H. Golub", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Golub, Gene H.
Numerical analysts
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
Jewish American scientists
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences
Deaths from acute myeloid leukemia
Singular value decomposition
Stanford University School of Engineering faculty
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Deaths from cancer in California
1932 births
2007 deaths
Presidents of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews