Numerical Linear Algebra Group

Professor Françoise Tisseur delivered the Olga Taussky-Todd Lecture at the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) on July 15, 2019, in Valencia, Spain. The honour of giving this lecture is conferred every four years on a woman who has made outstanding contributions in applied mathematics and/or scientific computation.

Her talk “Challenges in the numerical solution of nonlinear eigenvalue problems” (slides available here in PDF form) concerned eigenvalue problems defined in terms of matrix-valued functions of a scalar parameter, which occur in many areas of science and engineering. She described recent advances in numerical methods for solving such problems, which include methods for approximating by a rational or polynomial matrix function and methods for linearizing rational and polynomial eigenproblems. Pitfalls that the methods must overcome were illustrated through simple but realistic practical examples.

Her talk followed the opening ceremony, which included traditional Valencian dancing and an address to the approximately 4000 attendees by King Felipe VI of Spain (video clip), who spoke of the good health of Spanish mathematics and the importance of mathematics for driving innovation.