Alan Edelman

Alan Edelman
Alan Edelman
	Edelman in 1999
Born	June 1963 (age 63); Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Education	Yale University (BS, MS); Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Awards	ACM Fellow (2020); IEEE Fellow (2017); AMS Fellow (2015); SIAM Fellow (2011); Chauvenet Prize (1998); IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award (2015); IEEE Sidney Fernbach Award (2019);
	Scientific career
Fields	Applied mathematics; Computer science;
Workplaces	MIT
Thesis	Eigenvalues and Condition Numbers of Random Matrices (1989)
Doctoral advisor	Lloyd N. Trefethen
Doctoral students	Jeff Bezanson; Ioana Dumitriu; Yanyuan Ma;
Website	math.mit.edu/~edelman

Alan Stuart Edelman (born June 1963) is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of applied mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Principal Investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) where he leads a group in applied computing. In 2004, he founded a business called Interactive Supercomputing which was later acquired by Microsoft. Edelman is a fellow of American Mathematical Society (AMS), Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), for his contributions in numerical linear algebra, computational science, parallel computing, and random matrix theory. He is one of the creators of the technical programming language Julia.

Education

Edelman received B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Yale University in 1984, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from MIT in 1989 under the direction of Lloyd N. Trefethen. Following a year at Thinking Machines Corporation, and at CERFACS in France, Edelman went to U.C. Berkeley as a Morrey Assistant Professor and Levy Fellow, 1990–93. He joined the MIT faculty in applied mathematics in 1993.

Research

Edelman's research interests include high-performance computing, numerical computation, linear algebra, and random matrix theory.

In random matrix theory, Edelman is known for the Edelman distribution of the smallest singular value of random matrices (also known as Edelman's law), the invention of beta ensembles, and the introduction of the stochastic operator approach, and some of the earliest computational approaches.
In high performance computing, Edelman is known for his work on parallel computing, as the co-founder of Interactive Supercomputing, as an inventor of the Julia programming language and for his work on the Future Fast Fourier transform. As the leader of the Julialab, he supervises work on scientific machine learning and compiler methodologies.
In numerical linear algebra, Edelman is known for eigenvalues and condition numbers of random matrices, the geometry of algorithms with orthogonality constraints, the geometry of the generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD), and applications of Lie algebra to matrix factorizations.

Awards and honors

A Sloan fellow, Edelman received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Career award in 1995. He has received numerous other awards, among them the

1989 Gordon Bell Prize
1990 Householder Prize
1998 Chauvenet Prize
1999 Edgerly Science Partnership Award
2000 SIAM Activity Group on Linear Algebra Prize
2005 Lester R. Ford Award (with Gilbert Strang)
2011 Fellow of SIAM
2015 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society
2017 Member of IEEE Fellow Class of 2018
2019 Winner Sidney Fernbach Award by the IEEE Computer Society
2021 ACM Fellow of Class 2020
2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

References

↑ Alan Edelman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
↑ Cerfacs
↑ Rudelson, Mark; Vershynin, Roman (2011). "Non-asymptotic Theory of Random Matrices: Extreme Singular Values". Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians 2010 (ICM 2010). Hindustan Book Agency (HBA), India. World Scientific for All Markets Except in India. pp. 1576–1602. arXiv:1003.2990. doi:10.1142/9789814324359_0111. ISBN 978-981-4324-30-4.
↑ Matrix Models for Beta Ensembles: arXiv:math-ph/0206043
↑ From Random Matrices to Stochastic Operators: arXiv:math-ph/0607038
↑ Bashor, Jon (August 15, 2016). "ACM Gordon Bell Prize Recognizes Top Accomplishments in Running Science Apps on HPC". SC16. Salt Lake City, Utah: ACM. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
↑ Bell, Gordon; Bailey, David; Dongarra, Jack; Karp, Alan; Walsh, Kevin (November 21, 2017). "A look back on 30 years of the Gordon Bell Prize". The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications. 31 (6). Sage Journals: 469–484. doi:10.1177/1094342017738610.
↑ Edelman, Alan; Kostlan, Eric (1995). "How Many Zeros of a Random Polynomial Are Real?". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 32: 1–37. arXiv:math/9501224. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1995-00571-9. S2CID 125863468.
↑ Edelman, Alan; Strang, Gilbert (2004). "Pascal matrices". American Mathematical Monthly. 111 (3): 189–197. doi:10.2307/4145127. JSTOR 4145127. Archived from the original on June 4, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2015.
↑ SIAM Fellow Class of 2011: http://fellows.siam.org/index.php?sort=year&value=2011
↑ "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
↑ IEEE Fellow Class of 2018: https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/2018_elevated_fellows.pdf Archived December 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
↑ "Alan Edelman of MIT Recognized with Prestigious 2019 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award | IEEE Computer Society". October 2, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
↑ "2020 ACM Fellows Recognized for Work that Underpins Today's Computing Innovations".
↑ "2024 AAAS Fellows". n.d. Retrieved February 1, 2026.

[mathgene-1] Alan Edelman at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

[2] Cerfacs

[Rudelson_Vershynin_ICM_2010-3] Rudelson, Mark; Vershynin, Roman (2011). "Non-asymptotic Theory of Random Matrices: Extreme Singular Values". Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians 2010 (ICM 2010). Hindustan Book Agency (HBA), India. World Scientific for All Markets Except in India. pp. 1576–1602. arXiv:1003.2990. doi:10.1142/9789814324359_0111. ISBN 978-981-4324-30-4.

[4] Matrix Models for Beta Ensembles: arXiv:math-ph/0206043

[5] From Random Matrices to Stochastic Operators: arXiv:math-ph/0607038

[6] Bashor, Jon (August 15, 2016). "ACM Gordon Bell Prize Recognizes Top Accomplishments in Running Science Apps on HPC". SC16. Salt Lake City, Utah: ACM. Retrieved February 15, 2026.

[7] Bell, Gordon; Bailey, David; Dongarra, Jack; Karp, Alan; Walsh, Kevin (November 21, 2017). "A look back on 30 years of the Gordon Bell Prize". The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications. 31 (6). Sage Journals: 469–484. doi:10.1177/1094342017738610.

[8] Edelman, Alan; Kostlan, Eric (1995). "How Many Zeros of a Random Polynomial Are Real?". Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. New Series. 32: 1–37. arXiv:math/9501224. doi:10.1090/s0273-0979-1995-00571-9. S2CID 125863468.

[9] Edelman, Alan; Strang, Gilbert (2004). "Pascal matrices". American Mathematical Monthly. 111 (3): 189–197. doi:10.2307/4145127. JSTOR 4145127. Archived from the original on June 4, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2015.

[10] SIAM Fellow Class of 2011: http://fellows.siam.org/index.php?sort=year&value=2011

[11] "List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society". Archived from the original on August 25, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2014.

[12] IEEE Fellow Class of 2018: https://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/2018_elevated_fellows.pdf Archived December 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine

[13] "Alan Edelman of MIT Recognized with Prestigious 2019 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award | IEEE Computer Society". October 2, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.

[14] "2020 ACM Fellows Recognized for Work that Underpins Today's Computing Innovations".

[15] "2024 AAAS Fellows". n.d. Retrieved February 1, 2026.

Alan Edelman
Edelman in 1999
Born	June 1963 (age 63) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Education	Yale University (BS, MS) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Awards	ACM Fellow (2020) IEEE Fellow (2017) AMS Fellow (2015) SIAM Fellow (2011) Chauvenet Prize (1998) IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award (2015) IEEE Sidney Fernbach Award (2019)
Scientific career
Fields	Applied mathematics Computer science
Workplaces	MIT
Thesis	Eigenvalues and Condition Numbers of Random Matrices (1989)
Doctoral advisor	Lloyd N. Trefethen
Doctoral students	Jeff Bezanson Ioana Dumitriu Yanyuan Ma

Website	math.mit.edu/~edelman

Alan Edelman

Education

Research

Awards and honors

See also

References