David M. Young Jr. (October 20, 1923 – December 21, 2008) 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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
and
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...
who was one of the pioneers in the field of modern
numerical analysis/scientific computing.
Contributions
Young is best known for establishing the mathematical framework for iterative methods (a.k.a.
preconditioning
In mathematics, preconditioning is the application of a transformation, called the preconditioner, that conditions a given problem into a form that is more suitable for numerical solving methods. Preconditioning is typically related to reducing ...
). These
algorithms
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...
are now used in computer software on high performance supercomputers for the numerical solution of large
sparse linear systems arising from problems involving
partial differential equations
In mathematics, a partial differential equation (PDE) is an equation which involves a multivariable function and one or more of its partial derivatives.
The function is often thought of as an "unknown" that solves the equation, similar to how ...
. See, in particular, the
successive over-relaxation
In numerical linear algebra, the method of successive over-relaxation (SOR) is a variant of the Gauss–Seidel method for solving a linear system of equations, resulting in faster convergence. A similar method can be used for any slowly convergi ...
(SOR) and
symmetric successive over-relaxation
In applied mathematics, symmetric successive over-relaxation (SSOR), is a preconditioner.
If the original matrix can be Matrix splitting, split into diagonal, lower and upper triangular as A=D+L+L^\mathsf then the SSOR preconditioner matrix is def ...
(SSOR) methods.
[.]
When Young first began his research on
iterative methods
In computational mathematics, an iterative method is a Algorithm, mathematical procedure that uses an initial value to generate a sequence of improving approximate solutions for a class of problems, in which the ''i''-th approximation (called an " ...
in the late 1940s, there was some skepticism with the idea of using iterative methods on the new computing machines to solve industrial-size problems. Ever since Young's ground-breaking Ph.D. thesis, iterative methods have been used on a wide range of scientific and engineering applications with a variety of new iterative methods having been developed.
Education and career
Young earned a bachelor's degree in 1944 from the
Webb Institute of Naval Architecture. After service in the U.S. Navy during part of World War II, he went to
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
to study mathematics and was awarded a master's degree in 1947 and a Ph.D in 1950, working under the supervision of Professor
Garrett Birkhoff
Garrett Birkhoff (January 19, 1911 – November 22, 1996) was an American mathematician. He is best known for his work in lattice theory.
The mathematician George Birkhoff (1884–1944) was his father.
Life
The son of the mathematician Ge ...
. Young began his academic career at the
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...
and he was the first to teach a mathematics course focusing mainly on
numerical analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...
and computer programming.
[.] After several years working in the aero-space industry in Los Angeles, he joined the faculty of the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, in 1958. Young was the founding Director of the university Computation Center and then the research Center for Numerical Analysis (CNA) in 1970. He would become the
Ashbel Smith Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of Mathematics and Computer Sciences as well as a founding member of the
Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), all at the University of Texas at Austin.
Awards and honors
Young was awarded the title:
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
. He was honored by the
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM) in 1990 for "outstanding contributions to computer science". In October 1988, the first IMACS International Conference on Iterative Method was held in Austin, Texas, in honor of Young's 65th birthday. The book Iterative Methods for Large Linear Systems (David R. Kincaid and Linda J. Hayes, eds., Academic Press, 1990) contains the invited presentations. A special issue of the Journal of Linear Algebra and Its Applications was dedicated to Young for his 70th birthday.
In 1998, the fourth IMACS Iterative Conference was held at the University of Texas at Austin in special recognition of Young's 75th birthday and
Richard Varga's 70th birthday. In 2000, a symposium was given at the
SIAM
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
Annual Meeting in Puerto Rico on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Young's publication of the SOR method.
Selected publications
Articles
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Books
* ''A Survey of Numerical Mathematics'' (with Robert Todd Gregory), Vol. 1-2, Addison-Wesley, 1973. (reprinted by Dover, 1988
vol. 1& vol. 2)
* ''Iterative Solution of Large Linear Systems'', Academic Press, 1971. (reprinted by Dover, 2003)
2014 pbk edition, Elsevier* ''Applied Iterative Methods'' (with Louis A. Hageman), Academic Press, 1981. (reprinted by Dover, 2004)
2016 pbk edition, Elsevier
References
External links
*
Young's web sitefrom University of Texas Mathematic Department
Obituaryfrom SIAM Newsletter (March 2009)
from NA Digest (January 2009)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, David M.
1923 births
2008 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
University of Texas at Austin faculty
Numerical analysts
Webb Institute alumni
21st-century American mathematicians