Celebrating James H. Wilkinson

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of James H. Wilkinson (1919-1986), the University of Manchester held a conference to discuss current developments and future challenges in the field of numerical linear algebra. Incidentally, four of SIAM’s Past Presidents were in attendance. The two-day event, titled “Advances in Numerical Linear Algebra: Celebrating the Centenary of the Birth of James H. Wilkinson,” featured several invited talks. Sven Hammarling (University of Manchester) shared his personal thoughts on Wilkinson in his opening address. Margaret Wright (New York University) revealed interesting anecdotes from Wilkinson’s lecture notes pertaining to courses he taught at Stanford University. Nicholas Higham (University of Manchester) described a series of talks that Wilkinson delivered with Cleve Moler (MathWorks) in 1973 during an Eigensystem Workshop at Argonne National Laboratory, videos of which are now available.

Four SIAM Past Presidents gathered at “Advances in Numerical Linear Algebra: Celebrating the Centenary of the Birth of James H. Wilkinson” a conference that took place at the University of Manchester earlier this year. From left to right: Cleve Moler (MathWorks), Margaret Wright (New York University), Lloyd N. Trefethen (University of Oxford), and Nicholas Higham (University of Manchester). Photo courtesy of Gian Maria Negri Porzio.

Slides from the various talks are available on the conference webpage, and select videos are accessible via YouTube. Read more about the event.