Nicholas John Higham
FRS (born 25 December 1961 in
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
)
is a British
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 is Royal Society Research Professor and
Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics The Richardson Chair of Applied Mathematics is an endowed professorial position in the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, England. The chair was founded by an endowment of £3,600 from one John Richardson, in 1890. The endowment was ...
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 ...
.
Education and career
Higham was educated at Eccles Grammar School, Eccles College, and 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 ...
, from which he gained his B.Sc. in mathematics (1982), M.Sc. in Numerical Analysis and Computing (1983), and PhD in Numerical Analysis (1985).
His PhD thesis was supervised by George Hall.
He was appointed lecturer in mathematics at the University of Manchester in 1985, where he has been Richardson Professor Professor of Applied Mathematics since 1998.
In 1988–1989 he was Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
Research
Higham is best known for his work on the accuracy and stability of numerical algorithms.
He has more than 140 refereed publications
on topics such as rounding error analysis, linear systems, least squares problems, matrix functions and nonlinear matrix equations, matrix nearness problems, condition number estimation, and generalized eigenvalue problems. He has contributed software to
LAPACK
LAPACK ("Linear Algebra Package") is a standard software library for numerical linear algebra. It provides routines for solving systems of linear equations and linear least squares, eigenvalue problems, and singular value decomposition. It also ...
and the
NAG library, and has contributed code included in the
MATLAB
MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation ...
distribution.
Higham's books include ''Functions of Matrices: Theory and Computation'', (2008),''Accuracy and Stability of Numerical Algorithms'',
''Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences'', and ''MATLAB Guide'', co-authored with his brother
Desmond Higham
Desmond John Higham (born 17 February 1964 in Salford)
is an applied mathematician and Professor of Numerical Analysis the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
He is a graduate of the Victoria University of Man ...
. He is Editor of the ''Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics'' and a contributor to the ''Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics''. His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Awards and honours
Higham's honours include the
Alston S. Householder Award VI, 1987 (for the best PhD thesis in numerical algebra 1984–1987), the 1988
Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis The Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) is a biennial prize established in 1985 by the IMA in honour of mathematician Leslie Fox (1918-1992). The prize honours "young numerical analyst ...
, a 1999
Junior Whitehead Prize
The Whitehead Prize is awarded yearly by the London Mathematical Society to multiple mathematicians working in the United Kingdom who are at an early stage of their career. The prize is named in memory of homotopy theory pioneer J. H. C. Whitehea ...
from the
London Mathematical Society
The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical S ...
, a 2020
IMA Gold Medal The ''Gold Medal of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA)'' is a biennial prize established in 1982 by the IMA "in recognition of outstanding contributions to mathematics and its applications over a period of years". These contrib ...
, th
2019 Naylor Prize and Lectureshipby the London Mathematical Society, th
2021 George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Expositionby the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and the
2022 Hans Schneider Prize in Linear Algebra. Higham held a prestigious
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award
The Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award was an award made by the Royal Society from 2000 to 2020.
It was administered by the Royal Society and jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the UK Office of Science and Technology, to provide ...
(2003–2008). He was elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 2007 and as a
ACM Fellow
ACM or A.C.M. may refer to:
Aviation
* AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile
* Air chief marshal
* Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting
* Air cycle machine
* Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia
Computing
...
in 2020. In 2008 he was awarded the
Fröhlich Prize
The Fröhlich Prize of the London Mathematical Society is awarded in even numbered years in memory of Albrecht Fröhlich. The prize is awarded for original and extremely innovative work in any branch of mathematics. According to the regulations ...
in recognition of 'his leading contributions to numerical linear algebra and numerical stability analysis'. He was elected a Member of Academia Europaea in 2016. In 2022 he became
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from aroun ...
.
Higham is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is also a Fellow of the
Alan Turing Institute
The Alan Turing Institute is the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, founded in 2015 and largely funded by the UK government. It is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computing ...
.
Professional service
Higham served as 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) 2017–2018, as vice president at Large 2010–2013, and on the SIAM Board of Trustees 2006–2009, and Council 1996–2001. He was a member of the Applied Mathematics sub-panel for the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise and the Mathematical Sciences sub-panel of the 2014 UK Research Exercise Excellence Framework.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Higham, Nicholas
1961 births
Living people
Academics of the University of Manchester
Alumni of the University of Manchester
20th-century British mathematicians
21st-century British mathematicians
Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Fellows of the Royal Society
Numerical analysts
People from Salford
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders
Whitehead Prize winners