Nicholas Higham facts for kids

Nicholas John Higham (born December 25, 1961 – died January 20, 2024) was a brilliant British mathematician. He was known for his work in numerical analysis, which is a field of mathematics that uses computers to solve complex math problems.

Professor Higham worked at the University of Manchester in England. He held important titles like Royal Society Research Professor and Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics.

Early Life and Education

Nicholas John Higham was born in Salford, England, on December 25, 1961. He went to Eccles Grammar School and Eccles College.

He then studied at the University of Manchester. There, he earned three degrees:

• A Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in mathematics in 1982.
• A Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Numerical Analysis and Computing in 1983.
• A PhD in Numerical Analysis in 1985.

His PhD research was guided by a professor named George Hall. After finishing his studies, he became a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Manchester in 1985. By 1998, he became the Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics.

From 1988 to 1989, he also spent time as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell University in New York, USA.

Amazing Research in Math

Professor Higham was famous for his work on how accurate and stable computer math programs are. Think of it like making sure a calculator gives you the right answer every time, even with very complicated numbers.

He wrote over 140 research papers. These papers covered topics like:

• Understanding tiny errors that happen when computers do calculations (rounding error analysis).
• Solving problems with linear equations, which are like puzzles with unknown numbers.
• Working with matrices, which are grids of numbers used in many areas of science and engineering.

He also helped create important computer programs for math. He contributed to software like LAPACK and the NAG library. His code was even included in MATLAB, a popular program used by scientists and engineers.

Professor Higham wrote several important books about mathematics. These include Functions of Matrices: Theory and Computation and Accuracy and Stability of Numerical Algorithms. He also co-wrote MATLAB Guide with his brother, Desmond Higham. His books were so important that they were translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

Helping the Math Community

Besides his research, Professor Higham was very active in the world of mathematics. He served as the president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) from 2017 to 2018. SIAM is a big organization for mathematicians who use math to solve real-world problems.

He also held other important roles at SIAM, like vice president and a member of their Board of Trustees. He helped decide what research was important in mathematics for the UK.

Awards and Special Honours

Professor Higham received many awards for his amazing contributions to mathematics:

• In 1987, he won the Alston S. Householder Award for the best PhD thesis in numerical algebra.
• He received the Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis in 1988.
• The London Mathematical Society gave him the Junior Whitehead Prize in 1999.
• In 2007, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
• He won the Fröhlich Prize in 2008 for his work on numerical linear algebra.
• He became a SIAM Fellow in 2009 and an ACM Fellow in 2020.
• Other awards include the IMA Gold Medal in 2020, the George Pólya Prize for Mathematical Exposition in 2021, and the Hans Schneider Prize in Linear Algebra in 2022.
• In 2022, he was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

He was also a Fellow of several other important organizations, like the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications and the Alan Turing Institute.

Passing Away

Nicholas Higham passed away on January 20, 2024, at the age of 62. He left behind a great legacy in the field of numerical analysis.