Michael J. D. Powell

Michael James David Powell FRS FAA[1] (29 July 1936 – 19 April 2015) was a British mathematician, who worked in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge.[2][3][4][5][6]

Michael Powell FRS FAA
Born	Michael James David Powell (1936-07-29)29 July 1936 London
Died	19 April 2015(2015-04-19) (aged 78)[1]
Education	Frensham Heights School Eastbourne College
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA, ScD)[2]
Known for	Powell's method Davidon–Fletcher–Powell formula
Awards	Naylor Prize and Lectureship
Scientific career
Fields	Numerical analysis Optimization Approximation[3]
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Website	michaeljdpowell.blogspot.co.uk

Education and early life

Born in London, Powell was educated at Frensham Heights School and Eastbourne College.[1] He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree followed by a Doctor of Science (DSc) degree in 1979 at the University of Cambridge.[7]

Career and research

Powell was known for his extensive work in numerical analysis, especially nonlinear optimisation 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. 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 (Powell's dog leg method), conjugate direction method (also called Powell's method), and radial basis function. He had been working on derivative-free optimization algorithms in recent years, the resultant algorithms including COBYLA, UOBYQA, NEWUOA, BOBYQA, and LINCOA. He was the author of numerous scientific papers[3] and of several books, most notably Approximation Theory and Methods.[8]

Awards and honours

Powell won several awards, including the George B. Dantzig Prize from the Mathematical Programming Society/Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Naylor Prize from the London Mathematical Society. Powell was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States in 2001 and as a corresponding fellow to the Australian Academy of Science in 2007.[7][9][10][11]

References

1. Buhmann, Martin D.; Fletcher, Roger; Iserles, Arieh; Toint, Philippe (2018). "Michael J. D. Powell. 29 July 1936 – 19 April 2015" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. London: Royal Society. 64: 341–366. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2017.0023. ISSN 0080-4606.
2. Michael J. D. Powell at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
3. Michael J. D. Powell publications indexed by Google Scholar
4. ICNAAO 2016 (5 August—7, 2016, Beijing), a memorial conference organized by Professor Ya-xiang Yuan
5. A memorial site set up by Dr. Dominique Orban
6. An Interview with M. J. D. Powell by Luís Nunes Vicente, 14 June 2003
7. "Powell in Oral History of SIAM". SIAM. 6 April 2005. see also An Interview with M. J. D. Powell by Philip J. Davis, 6 April 2005
8. Approximation Theory and Methods, ISBN 978-0521295147.
9. An Interview with M. J. D. Powell by Xiaoling Sun, 2006
10. Citation for winning the Catherine Richards Prize
11. "Optimization software by Professor M. J. D. Powell at CCPForge". Archived from the original on 19 April 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.