Magnus Rudolph Hestenes (February 13, 1906 – May 31, 1991) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

best known for his contributions to calculus of variations and

optimal control Optimal control theory is a branch of mathematical optimization that deals with finding a control for a dynamical system over a period of time such that an objective function is optimized. It has numerous applications in science, engineering and ...

. As a pioneer in computer science, he devised the conjugate gradient method, published jointly with

Eduard Stiefel Eduard L. Stiefel (21 April 1909 – 25 November 1978) was a Swiss mathematician. Together with Cornelius Lanczos and Magnus Hestenes, he invented the conjugate gradient method, and gave what is now understood to be a partial construction of the ...

Biography

Born in

Bricelyn, Minnesota Bricelyn is a city in Faribault County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 365 at the 2010 census. History The town developed as a result of the railroad passing through the area. In 1899, town lots were auctioned. The city was named f ...

, Hestenes graduated with a B.S. in 1927 from St. Olaf College and with an M.A. in 1928 from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. He earned his Ph.D. at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1932 under Gilbert Bliss. His dissertation was titled "Sufficient Conditions for the General Problem of Mayer with Variable End-Points." After teaching as an associate professor at Chicago, in 1947 he moved to a professorship at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He continued there until his retirement in 1973, and during that time he served as department chair from 1950–58. While a professor, Hestenes supervised the thesis research of 34 students, among them Glen Culler, Richard Tapia and Jesse Wilkins, Jr. Hestenes received the Guggenheim (1954) and Fulbright awards, was a vice president of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

, and was an invited speaker at the 1954 International Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam. He is the father of mathematician and physicist

David Hestenes David Orlin Hestenes (born May 21, 1933) is a theoretical physicist and science educator. He is best known as chief architect of geometric algebra as a unified language for mathematics and physics, and as founder of Modelling Instructio ...

. He died on May 31, 1991 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Selected publications

* (M.A. thesis) * * * *

References

External links

*
Obituary
in the Numerical Analysis Digest * 1906 births 1991 deaths St. Olaf College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Chicago alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty 20th-century American mathematicians {{US-mathematician-stub