James H. Wilkinson

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist James Hardy Wilkinson FRS<ref name="frs"/> (27 September 1919 – 5 October 1986) was a prominent figure in the field of numerical analysis, a field at the boundary of applied mathematics and computer science particularly useful to physics and engineering.<ref>Template:MacTutor Biography</ref><ref name="acm">Template:ACMPortal</ref><ref name="dblp">Template:DBLP</ref>

Education

Born in Strood, England, he won a Foundation Scholarship to Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester.<ref name="ACM">Template:Cite web</ref> He studied the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as Senior Wrangler.<ref>"Easily at the top of the First Class", from the MacTutor biography.</ref>

Career

Taking up war work in 1940, he began working on ballistics but transferred to the National Physical Laboratory<ref name="NPL"/> in 1946, where he worked with Alan Turing on the ACE<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> computer project. Later, Wilkinson's interests took him into the numerical analysis field, where he discovered many significant algorithms.

Awards and honours

Wilkinson received the Turing Award in 1970 "for his research in numerical analysis to facilitate the use of the high-speed digital computer, having received special recognition for his work in computations in linear algebra and 'backward' error analysis." In the same year, he also gave the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) John von Neumann Lecture.

Wilkinson also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1973.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was elected as a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society in 1974 for his pioneering work in computer science.

The James H. Wilkinson Prize in Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, established in 1982 by SIAM, and J. H. Wilkinson Prize for Numerical Software, established in 1991, are named in his honour.

In 1987, Wilkinson won the Chauvenet Prize of the Mathematical Association of America, for his paper "The Perfidious Polynomial".<ref name="Wilkinson Perfidious Chauvenet">Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal life

Wilkinson married Heather Ware in 1945. He died at home of a heart attack on 5 October 1986. His wife and their son survived him, a daughter having predeceased him.

Template:AnchorSelected works

• Template:Cite book Template:Isbn. (REAP)
  • Reprinted from SIAM in 2023, ISBN 978-1-61197-751-6.
• Template:Cite book (AEP)
• with Christian Reinsch: Handbook for Automatic Computation, Volume II, Linear Algebra, Springer-Verlag, 1971
• The Perfidious Polynomial. In: Studies in Numerical Analysis, pp. 1–28, MAA Stud. Math., 24, Math. Assoc. America, Washington, DC, 1984

See also

• List of pioneers in computer science

External links

• Template:Cite web Template:Cite web
• "An interview with James H. Wilkinson", Conducted by J. C. Nash on 13 July, 1984
• Template:Cite web