MCSD Staff Edit Two Conference Proceedings in Applied and Computational Mathematics
March 2003
Two mathematicians from the ITL Mathematical and Computational Sciences Division
have edited recently published volumes of research papers on topics in applied and
computational mathematics.
Geoffrey B. McFadden of MCSD is a co-Editor of the proceedings of an
international conference on interface problems in the physical sciences. The 332-page
book, entitled Interfaces for the 21st Century: New Research Directions in Fluid
Mechanics and Materials Science, is published by Imperial College Press, London. Co-
editors of the volume are Marc K. Smith , Michael J. Miksis, G. Paul Neitzel, and David
R. Canright. The conference was held in Monterey, California, in August 1999 with
funding support by the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration. The conference included a special tribute to Professor Stephen H.
Davis, Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics Department, Northwestern
University. Davis has been the advisor of a number of Ph.D. students in the field of
applied mathematics who have gone on to distinguished careers, including two former
NRC Postdoctoral Fellows in ITL: Richard Braun (1991-93) who is now at the
Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware, and Daniel
Anderson (1995-97), now in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at George Mason
University. The proceedings volume includes invited papers by Anderson, Braun, and
McFadden, along with other collaborators of Davis.
Ronald F. Boisvert of MCSD is the co-Editor of the volume Computational Science,
Mathematics and Software, which was recently published by Purdue University Press.
Elias Houstis of Purdue was co-Editor. The 386-page book contains 19 papers originally
presented at the International Symposium on Computational Science, which was held at
Purdue in May 1999. Among the topics covered are the numerical solution of differential
equations, the design of mathematical software, and the development of problem-solving
environments for the sciences and engineering. The volume begins with a survey article
by Boisvert entitled "Mathematical Software: Past, Present and Future". The conference
was sponsored by Purdue, the International Federation for Information Processing's
(IFIP) Working Group 2.5 (Numerical Software), and the International Association for
Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS). The conference was held in
conjunction with the 65th birthday of Professor John R. Rice. Rice was an NRC
Postdoctoral Fellow at NBS in the early 1960s, and spent most of his career as a member
of the faculty of the Computer Science Department of Purdue. He was department chair
there from 1983-96, and is now W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor of Computer
Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM). Rice is most well know for his seminal work in the field
of mathematical software; the journal he founded, the ACM Transactions on
Mathematical Software, remains the flagship for this sub-discipline of computer science.
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