From the Back Cover
Numerical mathematics is the branch of mathematics that proposes, develops, analyzes and applies methods from scientific computing to several fields including analysis, linear algebra, geometry, approximation theory, functional equations, optimization and differential equations. Other disciplines, such as physics, the natural and biological sciences, engineering, and economics and the financial sciences frequently give rise to problems that need scientific computing for their solutions. As such, numerical mathematics is the crossroad of several disciplines of great relevance in modern applied sciences, and can become a crucial tool for their qualitative and quantitative analysis.
One of the purposes of this book is to provide the mathematical foundations of numerical methods, to analyze their basic theoretical properties (stability, accuracy, computational complexity) and demonstrate their performance on examples and counterexamples which outline their pros and cons. This is done using the MATLABTM software environment which is user-friendly and widely adopted. Within any specific class of problems, the most appropriate scientific computing algorithms are reviewed, their theoretical analyses are carried out and the expected results are verified on a MATLABTM computer implementation. Every chapter is supplied with examples, exercises and applications of the discussed theory to the solution of real-life problems.
This book is addressed to senior undergraduate and graduate students with particular focus on degree courses in engineering, mathematics, physics and computer sciences. The attention which is paid to the applications and the related development of software makes it valuable also for researchers and users of scientific computing in a large variety of professional fields.
In this second edition, the readability of pictures, tables and program headings has been improved. Several changes in the chapters on iterative methods and on polynomial approximation have also been added.
From the reviews of the first edition:
"This is an excellent and modern textbook in numerical mathematics! It is primarily addressed to undergraduate students in mathematics, physics, computer science and engineering. But you will need a weekly 4 hour lecture for 3 terms lecture to teach all topics treated in this book! Well known methods as well as very new algorithms are given. The methods and their performances are demonstrated by illustrative examples and computer examples. Exercises shall help the reader to understand the theory and to apply it. MATLAB-software satisfies the need of user-friendliness. [....] In the reviewers opinion, the presented book is the best textbook in numerical mathematics edited in the last ten years."
Zentralblatt für Mathematik 2001, 991.38387
Alfio Quarteroni (see http: //www.cirs-tm.org/researchers/researchers.php?id=319):
Author of a huge amount of books
Professor and Chair of Modelling and Scientific Computing (CMCS) at the Institute of Analysis and Scientific Computing of EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland), since 1998.
Professor of Numerical Analysis at the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) since 1989 and Scientific Director of MOX, since 2002.
Research Interests:
His current research involves computational fluid dynamics, modelling and simulation of haemodynamics, numerical analysis of domain decomposition methods with application to multi-physics problems.
Awards and Honors:
- NASA Group Achievement Award for the pioneering work in Computational Fluid Dynamics as a member of the ICASE numerical analysis and algorithms group, 1992.
Member of the Lombard Academy of Science (Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere) (since 1995). - Chairman of the Mathematics and Computer Science RTN evaluation panel of the E.U., 1999.
- Co-chairman (with P.L.Lions) of the AMIF research programme of the European Science Foundation (1996-2001).
- Recipient of the Galileian Chair, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy (2001).
Premio Agrumello 2003. - Laurea Honoris Causa in Naval Engineering, University of Trieste, Italy, October 2003.
- Recipient of one of the SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize 2004 (for a paper in collaboration with A. Veneziani and P. Zunino).
- IACM (International Association for Computational Mechanics), Fellow Award, 2004.
- Member of Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, (Italian National Academy of Sciences) 2004.
- President of the Evaluation Panel "Mathematics and Computer Sciences" of CIVR, 2005.
