Title: 40 Years of Linear Algebra and Optimization at Stanford

Speaker: Michael Saunders
         Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL)
         Department of Management Science and Engineering
         Stanford University

Abstract: 
I came to Stanford in 1967 as a very green graduate student
(not in today's ecological sense).  Computer Science was a new
department, as was Operations Research.  The CS qualifying
exams allowed 3 out of 5 topics, including numerical analysis.
Alan George and I obtained permission to take one of the OR
exams.  Thus began a career of applying stable matrix methods
to numerical optimization (as pioneered by Gene Golub, Philip
Gill, and Walter Murray).

We trace the impact of Gene inviting numerous researchers to
Serra House (including Chris Paige and Bruce Murtagh), as well
as George Dantzig's creation of the Systems Optimization Lab
in the OR Department, and Gene's founding of the SCCM Program.

The talk includes some illustrations of the use of optimization
within the aerospace industry.