- Michael J. D. Powell
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Michael James David Powell FRS, FIMA (London, 1936 – ) is a British mathematics Professor, retired from Cambridge University, where he earned his bachelors degree and, in 1979, his D.Sc. [1]. He is known for his extensive work in numerical analysis, especially nonlinear optimization and Approximation. He was a founding member of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a founding Managing Editor of the Journal for Numerical Analysis. He was the winner of many awards, including George B. Dantzig Prize from the Mathematical Programming Society/SIAM and the Naylor Prize from the London Mathematical Society.
His mathematical contributions include quasi-Newton methods, particularly the Davidon-Fletcher-Powell formula and the Powell's Symmetric Broyden formula, augmented Lagrangian function (also called Powell-Rockafellar penalty function), sequential quadratic programming method (also called as Wilson-Han-Powell method), trust region algorithms, conjugate direction method (also called Powell's method), and radial basis function. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and of several books, most notably Approximation Theory and Methods [2].
External links
- Interview with M.J.D. Powell by Philip J. Davis
- Citation for winning the Catherine Richards Prize
- Entry at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- Tribute Book to M.J.D. Powell
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