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Nature 450, 962 (13 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/450962a; Published online 12 December 2007

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Obituary: Gene H. Golub (1932–2007)

Lloyd N. Trefethen1

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Mathematician and godfather of numerical analysis.

A century ago, matrices and the techniques for their manipulation — linear algebra — were a backwater of mathematics. Today, they are the foundation not just of the mathematical field of numerical analysis, but also of computational science and engineering, and have become indispensable for anyone who wants to get numerical results from a computer.

  1. Lloyd N. Trefethen is in the Oxford University Computing Laboratory, Oxford OX1 3QD, UK.
    Email: lnt@comlab.ox.ac.uk