James Milton Renegar Jr. (born May 14, 1955) is an American mathematician, specializing in optimization algorithms for linear programming and nonlinear programming.
In 1983 he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. thesis On the Computational Complexity of Simplicial Algorithms in Approximation Zeros of Complex Polynomials was supervised by Stephen Smale. [1] After postdoc positions, Renegar joined in 1987 the faculty of the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering at Cornell University and is now a full professor there. [2]
Renegar is a leading expert on optimization algorithms. In recent years, the focus of his research is devising new algorithms for linear programming. [3] His 2001 monograph A Mathematical View of Interior-point Methods in Convex Optimization is intended to present a general theory of interior-point methods, suitable for a wide audience of graduate students in mathematics and engineering. [4] [5]
In 1990 Renegar was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Kyoto. [6] In 1995 he was a founding member of the nonprofit organization Foundations of Computational Mathematics. [2] He was awarded the 2018 Khachiyan Prize. [7]
James M. Renegar Jr. married Catharine M. Barnaby and is the father of two children, Alice and Nicholas James. James M. Renegar Sr. (1928–2005) practiced law in Oklahoma City for many years. [8]