J. Alan George, (born November 9, 1943) is a computer scientist and university administrator. In the academic world, George is best known for his intensive research and wide-ranging contributions to the field of numerical

linear algebra Linear algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning linear equations such as: :a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n=b, linear maps such as: :(x_1, \ldots, x_n) \mapsto a_1x_1+\cdots +a_nx_n, and their representations in vector spaces and through matrices ...

, specifically computation with

sparse matrices In numerical analysis and scientific computing, a sparse matrix or sparse array is a matrix in which most of the elements are zero. There is no strict definition regarding the proportion of zero-value elements for a matrix to qualify as sparse b ...

. He is the author or coauthor of more than 100 research articles and two books, and co-editor of two other books. With his students, he has developed a widely used mathematical software package (SPARSPAK) for solving sparse systems of equations and sparse least squares problems. He is also well known at the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

for having served in a number of senior administrative positions, notably vice-president, provost, and dean of mathematics.

Education

George received a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

and MSc from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...

in 1964 and 1966 respectively, and a PhD from Stanford University in 1971. His doctoral thesis was entitled ''Computer Implementation of the Finite Element Method'' and his supervisor was George Forsythe.

Administrative service

He served as dean of the

Faculty of Mathematics In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although rese ...

at the

from 1980 to 1986. From 1986 to 1988 he held the position of distinguished scientist at the

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a U.S. multiprogram science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered, managed, and operated by UT–Battelle as a federally funded research an ...

and university professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He held the position of vice-president, academic and provost from 1988 until June 30, 1993. He again served as dean of mathematics from December 3, 1997, to June 30, 2005. He served as interim vice-president, academic and provost at the university from January through August 2001, and interim vice-president, university research from January 2006 through June 2007. He is currently associate provost, information systems and technology at UW, a position he has held since July, 2003, and also has been serving as interim dean of graduate studies since October 2007. His name has been given to an award, the ''J. Alan George Award'', given by Waterloo's undergraduate Mathematics Society to an undergraduate completing studies in the Faculty of Mathematics who has shown exemplary service to student life during the duration of his or her studies.

Controversy

In 1989, George attracted some attention for his decision, as Provost, to bar the Internet

newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinc ...

rec.humor.funny from Waterloo's news service. From 1991 to 1993, he was involved in a dispute ("the Edmonds affair") with the University of Waterloo and Jack Edmonds. In 2000, his decision to override a professor's assigned marks for a calculus class resulted in considerable news coverage on campus and a formal arbitration between the university and the professor concerned.

Other

He has been a consultant to various companies and government agencies in Canada, the United States, and Britain, and serves or has served on advisory or governing boards for numerous academic institutions and research institutes. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (UK), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, J. Alan 1943 births Living people Canadian computer scientists Canadian university and college faculty deans Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of Alberta alumni Stanford University alumni Academic staff of the University of Waterloo Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Numerical analysts

Education

Administrative service

Controversy

Other

See also

References