12 April 2006

Prestigious Prize for Dundee Mathematician

University of Dundee mathematician Professor Roger Fletcher has been named joint winner of a prestigious international prize.

The US-based Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the Mathematical Programming Society have named Professor Fletcher as the joint winner of their Lagrange Prize for Continuous Optimization.

Optimization is a branch of applied mathematics that involves developing new mathematical techniques to make a system or design as effective or functional as possible.

Professor Fletcher and his colleagues, Sven Leyffer at the US-based Argonne National Laboratory and Phillippe Toint at the University of Namur in Brussels, designed a mathematical filter algorithm which solves a problem of nonlinear programming and could have use in a range of engineering and design applications.

Professor Leyffer was based at the University of Dundee alongside Professor Fletcher when the research was carried out.

Professor Fletcher said, "Discovering the filter idea was a real "eureka" moment for me and I am very gratified by the interest that it has generated."

The Lagrange Prize is jointly awarded by the Mathematical Programming Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics for outstanding works in the area of continuous optimization. The work is judged primarily on the mathematical quality, significance and originality.

The 2006 Prize was awarded for two papers published by Professor Fletcher and his colleagues which described their filter algorithm. The prize carries a financial award of US $1500.

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