Michael Saunders (academic)

Last updated
Michael Alan Saunders
Born6 January 1944
Christchurch, New Zealand
Nationality American
Alma mater Stanford University
University of Canterbury
Known for MINOS, NPSOL, SNOPT
AwardsBeale-Orchard-Hays Prize, SIAM Linear Algebra Prize
Scientific career
Fields Computer Science, Mathematics
Institutions Stanford University
Doctoral advisor Gene H. Golub

Michael Alan Saunders is a New Zealand American numerical analyst and computer scientist. He is a research professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. [1] Saunders is known for his contributions to numerical linear algebra and numerical optimization and has developed many widely used software packages, such as MINOS, NPSOL, and SNOPT.

Contents

Saunders developed the MINRES method for the iterative solution of symmetric linear equation systems in 1975 together with Christopher Conway Paige. [2]

Education and career

Saunders was born on 6 January 1944 in Christchurch, New Zealand. [3] He received his B.Sc. in mathematics from University of Canterbury in 1965 and worked for two years as a scientific officer at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in New Zealand. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University in 1972, under the supervision of Gene Golub.

Saunders spent another two years at his old position with DSIR before joining the Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) in the Operations Research department at Stanford University. He was promoted to his current position in 1987 and made a faculty member in the Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics (SCCM). He has authored over 100 scientific papers on a variety of topics, including many with his colleagues Philip Gill, Walter Murray, and Margaret Wright. [3]

Honors and awards

Saunders is a highly cited researcher in both computer science and mathematics on the ISI Web of Knowledge, [4] an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, [5] and a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) fellow. [6] He has won the Mathematical Programming Society (MPS) Beale-Orchard Hays Prize, [7] and is a cowinner of the SIAM Linear Algebra Prize [8] with Sou-Cheng Choi and Christopher Paige.

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References

  1. "Faculty with "S" last names". Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  2. Christopher C. Paige, Michael A. Saunders (1975). "Solution of sparse indefinite systems of linear equations". SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis. 12 (4): 617–629. doi:10.1137/0712047.
  3. 1 2 "Curriculum Vitae - Michael Saunders" (PDF). Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  4. "ISI highly cited researchers with "S" last names". Archived from the original on 2 May 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  5. "Current Honorary Fellows of the Royal Society of New Zealand" . Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  6. "SIAM Fellows: Class of 2013" . Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  7. "Past Winners of the Beale-Orchard-Hays" . Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  8. "SIAG/Linear Algebra Prize" . Retrieved 4 February 2013.