FoCM

First Stephen Smale Prize

The first Stephen Smale Prize was awarded at the FoCM'11 meeting in Budapest on July 14th, 2011 to:

Snorre H. Christiansen

The winner received a "Gömböc" as the prize. More about the Gömböc is here.

 

About the prize winner

Staphen Smale

Professor Snorre Christiansen, University of Oslo, Norway, received the Smale prize for his pioneering work on the foundation of computational mathematics. Christiansen is an original and insightful researcher working on computational problems at the interface between pure and applied mathematics. Most of his work is motivated by the design of numerical methods for various equations arising in physics, and he has made substantial contributions to a number of key areas related to modern scientific computing. In particular, we will mention his use of Calderon’s formulas to construct preconditioners for the electric field equations, his contributions to the development of finite element exterior calculus, and his convergence results for lattice gauge theory. Through his work Christiansen has given many examples on how various topics from pure mathematics, such as homological algebra and algebraic topology, can be used as crucial tools for developing and understanding computational procedures.


Smale Prize 2011 committee

Name
Albert Cohen
Felipe Cucker (chair)
Alan Edelman
Arieh Iserles
Teresa Krick
Peter Olver
Eitan Tadmor