Alan Edelman

Professor at MIT

Alan Edelman is a prominent American mathematician and computer scientist who serves as a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).1 2 He is also a Principal Investigator at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), where he leads a group in applied computing.2

Key aspects of Alan Edelman's career and contributions include:

Education: Edelman received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Yale University in 1984, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT in 1989.2
Research interests: His research focuses on high-performance computing, numerical computation, linear algebra, random matrix theory, and scientific machine learning.1 3
Julia programming language: Edelman is one of the creators of Julia, a free and open-source programming language designed for scientific computing.1 2
Entrepreneurship: In 2004, he founded Interactive Supercomputing, which was later acquired by Microsoft.2
Awards and honors: Edelman has received numerous awards, including the Gordon Bell Prize, Householder Prize, Chauvenet Prize, and the IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award.1 2
Professional recognition: He is a fellow of several prestigious organizations, including the American Mathematical Society (AMS), Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).2
Teaching: Edelman introduced the graduate course in high-performance computing at MIT in 1994 and has trained many students who have gone on to work in national labs, universities, and industry.4
Industry involvement: He has consulted for various companies, including Akamai, IBM, Pixar, and NKK Japan.1

Alan Edelman's work spans both theoretical and applied aspects of mathematics and computer science, making significant contributions to fields such as random matrix theory, numerical linear algebra, and high-performance computing.2 3