Numerical Analysis Group
Professor James H. Wilkinson
The Numerical Analysis group is led by Professors Nick Higham, FRS, and David Silvester and comprises nine permanent members of staff, plus research associates and research fellows. In 2007 the group was strengthened by the appointment of Professor Jack Dongarra to a part-time position. The group carries out research in various areas of numerical analysis and provides teaching and supervision at the undergraduate (in all four years) and postgraduate (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) levels. It forms part of the Applied Mathematics Unit.
Activities of the group include organizing international conferences and a Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing seminar series; writing textbooks and research monographs; membership of editorial boards of international journals and book series; and contributing software to the NAG and LAPACK libraries and MATLAB. The group has a large grant portfolio supported by bodies such as EPSRC, The Royal Society, The British Council, and in the USA (though Dongarra) the NSF and DOE. The strength of numerical analysis in Manchester is indicated by the fact that no less than three of our researchers have been designated Highly Cited Researchers at ISIHighlyCited.com: Dongarra, Hammarling and Higham.
Numerical analysis has a long history going back at least to Newton and Gauss, whose names adorn some of today's most-used numerical methods. The UK has a strong tradition of research excellence in the subject, as exemplified by James H. Wilkinson (1919-1986), FRS, who was at the forefront of developments in numerical linear algebra from the days of the first digital computers. In Manchester, numerical analysis has long been an area of strength, and M.Sc. programmes in numerical analysis have run continuously since 1959. See the short historical essay Numerical Analysis at the Victoria University of Manchester, 1957-1979, by Joan Walsh.