{"id":10982,"date":"2024-01-25T11:36:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-25T16:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/?p=10982"},"modified":"2024-05-10T10:18:46","modified_gmt":"2024-05-10T14:18:46","slug":"nick-higham-1961-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/2024\/01\/25\/nick-higham-1961-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Higham (1961-2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n<div class=\"content\"><!--introduction--><p>Nick Higham passed away last Saturday. Nick was a close friend of mine and a great friend of MATLAB. I will leave it to others to describe his research and teaching, his many honors, and his service to our community, especially SIAM. I have just a few, more personal, comments.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/files\/nick.png\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><!--\/introduction--><h3>Contents<\/h3><div><ul><li><a href=\"#55ea5d3c-b4f4-4da7-9ef0-927ee2f50ad8\">NA Digest<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5e573d49-7421-446b-b33a-75b5a5de0817\">Books<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5676942b-2ae9-4bef-bc93-b9f3d5b98bdc\">MATLAB<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#0bcd9ac8-0aa8-4c3b-82b4-757134f792eb\"><tt>gallery<\/tt><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#2f7af044-0bcc-47ec-9f85-7dfa168b7dd3\"><tt>expm<\/tt><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#10df72d0-23d3-4a87-b7cb-5a467799f947\">Goodbye<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><h4>NA Digest<a name=\"55ea5d3c-b4f4-4da7-9ef0-927ee2f50ad8\"><\/a><\/h4><p>Monday's NA Digest led off with this from Nick's wife Francoise and his brother Des.<\/p><pre>Subject: Nick Higham (1961--2024)<\/pre><pre>With great sadness we report that Nick Higham, Royal Society Research\r\nProfessor and Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics at the\r\nUniversity of Manchester, passed away on January 20, 2024, at the age\r\nof 62 after an 18 month struggle with a form of blood cancer. An\r\nobituary describing Nick's research and leadership contributions will\r\nappear in SIAM News in due course.<\/pre><pre>Francoise Tisseur and Des Higham<\/pre><h4>Books<a name=\"5e573d49-7421-446b-b33a-75b5a5de0817\"><\/a><\/h4><p>Nick was an excellent writer, and an excellent writer about writing.<\/p><p>Here are the covers of his six books.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/files\/book_covers.png\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>SIAM published five of these.  Two are surveys of Nick's research on the accuracy of numeric algorithms and the computation of matrix functions. Two more, one of them coauthored with Dennis Sherwood, are guides to mathematical exposition.<\/p><p><i>MATLAB Guide<\/i>, by Des and Nick Higham, is one of my favorite books about MATLAB. It is a succinct introduction for newcomers and a valuable refresher for old-timers. The third edition, published in 2017, includes chapters on object-oriented computing, parallel computing, the Symbolic Math Toolbox and other recent additions.  Be sure to check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/nhigham.com\/matlab-guide\/\"><i>MATLAB Guide<\/i> web site<\/a>.<\/p><p>The only non-SIAM book pictured above is <a href=\"https:\/\/nhigham.com\/the-princeton-companion-to-applied-mathematics\/\"><i>The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics<\/i><\/a>.  It is over 1,000 pages long and features nearly 200 sections written by an <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.press.princeton.edu\/chapters\/s1_10592.pdf\">international team of experts<\/a>. Nick is the editor-in-chief and wrote many of the sections himself.<\/p><h4>MATLAB<a name=\"5676942b-2ae9-4bef-bc93-b9f3d5b98bdc\"><\/a><\/h4><p>Here is a <a href=\"https:\/\/nhigham.com\">Word Cloud<\/a> from Nick's home page.  It shows the frequency of the tags for his blog and confirms his interest in MATLAB.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/files\/word_cloud.png\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><h4><tt>gallery<\/tt><a name=\"0bcd9ac8-0aa8-4c3b-82b4-757134f792eb\"><\/a><\/h4><p>Anyone interested in numerical linear algebra should also be interested in the <tt>gallery<\/tt> function, which is based on Nick's work.  Enter<\/p><pre class=\"language-matlab\">&gt;&gt; doc gallery\r\n<\/pre><p>Scroll down to <tt>matrixname<\/tt> and investigate over 70 different test matrices.<\/p><p>If you find <tt>gallery<\/tt> irresistible, take a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/nhigham.com\/2021\/11\/09\/anymatrix\/\"><tt>anymatrix<\/tt><\/a>, an extensible matrix collection, by Nick and Mantas Mikaitis.<\/p><h4><tt>expm<\/tt><a name=\"2f7af044-0bcc-47ec-9f85-7dfa168b7dd3\"><\/a><\/h4><p>This is very personal for me. Thirty or forty years ago, Charlie Van Loan and I were regarded as authorities on computing the matrix exponential, $e^{A}$. The function <tt>expm<\/tt> has been in MATLAB since its very beginning. Around twenty years ago, we ceded the authority title to Nick and Awad Al-Mohy. <a href=\"https:\/\/epubs.siam.org\/doi\/10.1137\/09074721X\">Their code<\/a> for matrix exponential is now the basis for <tt>expm<\/tt>.<\/p><h4>Goodbye<a name=\"10df72d0-23d3-4a87-b7cb-5a467799f947\"><\/a><\/h4><p>Our business has lost one of its superstars. I have lost a good friend, way too soon. Goodbye Nick.<\/p><script language=\"JavaScript\"> <!-- \r\n    function grabCode_ac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a() {\r\n        \/\/ Remember the title so we can use it in the new page\r\n        title = document.title;\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Break up these strings so that their presence\r\n        \/\/ in the Javascript doesn't mess up the search for\r\n        \/\/ the MATLAB code.\r\n        t1='ac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a ' + '##### ' + 'SOURCE BEGIN' + ' #####';\r\n        t2='##### ' + 'SOURCE END' + ' #####' + ' ac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a';\r\n    \r\n        b=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];\r\n        i1=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t1)+t1.length;\r\n        i2=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t2);\r\n \r\n        code_string = b.innerHTML.substring(i1, i2);\r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/REPLACE_WITH_DASH_DASH\/g,'--');\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Use \/x3C\/g instead of the less-than character to avoid errors \r\n        \/\/ in the XML parser.\r\n        \/\/ Use '\\x26#60;' instead of '<' so that the XML parser\r\n        \/\/ doesn't go ahead and substitute the less-than character. \r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/\\x3C\/g, '\\x26#60;');\r\n\r\n        copyright = 'Copyright 2024 The MathWorks, Inc.';\r\n\r\n        w = window.open();\r\n        d = w.document;\r\n        d.write('<pre>\\n');\r\n        d.write(code_string);\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Add copyright line at the bottom if specified.\r\n        if (copyright.length > 0) {\r\n            d.writeln('');\r\n            d.writeln('%%');\r\n            if (copyright.length > 0) {\r\n                d.writeln('% _' + copyright + '_');\r\n            }\r\n        }\r\n\r\n        d.write('<\/pre>\\n');\r\n\r\n        d.title = title + ' (MATLAB code)';\r\n        d.close();\r\n    }   \r\n     --> <\/script><p style=\"text-align: right; font-size: xx-small; font-weight:lighter;   font-style: italic; color: gray\"><br><a href=\"javascript:grabCode_ac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a()\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;        font-style: italic;\">Get \r\n      the MATLAB code <noscript>(requires JavaScript)<\/noscript><\/span><\/a><br><br>\r\n      Published with MATLAB&reg; R2023a<br><\/p><\/div><!--\r\nac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a ##### SOURCE BEGIN #####\r\n%% Nick Higham (1961-2024)\r\n% Nick Higham passed away last Saturday. Nick was a close friend of mine\r\n% and a great friend of MATLAB. I will leave it to others to describe his\r\n% research and teaching, his many honors, and his service to our community,\r\n% especially SIAM. I have just a few, more personal, comments.\r\n%\r\n% <<nick.png>>\r\n%\r\n\r\n%% NA Digest\r\n%\r\n% Monday's NA Digest led off with this from\r\n% Nick's wife Francoise and his brother Des.\r\n%\r\n%  Subject: Nick Higham (1961REPLACE_WITH_DASH_DASH2024)\r\n%  \r\n%  With great sadness we report that Nick Higham, Royal Society Research\r\n%  Professor and Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics at the\r\n%  University of Manchester, passed away on January 20, 2024, at the age\r\n%  of 62 after an 18 month struggle with a form of blood cancer. An\r\n%  obituary describing Nick's research and leadership contributions will\r\n%  appear in SIAM News in due course.\r\n%  \r\n%  Francoise Tisseur and Des Higham\r\n%\r\n\r\n%% Books\r\n% Nick was an excellent writer, and an excellent writer about writing.\r\n%\r\n% Here are the covers of his six books.\r\n%\r\n% <<book_covers.png>>\r\n%\r\n% SIAM published five of these.  Two are surveys of Nick's research\r\n% on the accuracy of numeric algorithms and\r\n% the computation of matrix functions.\r\n% Two more, one of them coauthored with Dennis Sherwood, are\r\n% guides to mathematical exposition.\r\n%\r\n% _MATLAB Guide_, by Des and Nick Higham, is one of my\r\n% favorite books about MATLAB.\r\n% It is a succinct introduction for newcomers\r\n% and a valuable refresher for old-timers.\r\n% The third edition, published in 2017, includes chapters on\r\n% object-oriented computing, parallel computing, the Symbolic Math\r\n% Toolbox and other recent additions.  Be sure to check out the\r\n% <https:\/\/nhigham.com\/matlab-guide\/ _MATLAB Guide_ web site>.\r\n%\r\n% The only non-SIAM book pictured above is\r\n% <https:\/\/nhigham.com\/the-princeton-companion-to-applied-mathematics\/\r\n% _The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics_>.  It is over 1,000 pages long and features\r\n% nearly 200 sections written by an \r\n% <https:\/\/assets.press.princeton.edu\/chapters\/s1_10592.pdf \r\n% international team of experts>.\r\n% Nick is the editor-in-chief and wrote many of the sections himself.\r\n\r\n%% MATLAB\r\n% Here is a <https:\/\/nhigham.com Word Cloud> from\r\n% Nick's home page.  It shows the frequency of the tags for his blog\r\n% and confirms his interest in MATLAB.\r\n%\r\n% <<word_cloud.png>>\r\n%\r\n\r\n%% |gallery|\r\n% Anyone interested in numerical linear algebra should also be interested\r\n% in the |gallery| function, which is based on Nick's work.  Enter\r\n%\r\n%   >> doc gallery\r\n%\r\n% Scroll down to |matrixname| and investigate over 70 different test\r\n% matrices. \r\n%\r\n% If you find |gallery| irresistible, take a look at\r\n% <https:\/\/nhigham.com\/2021\/11\/09\/anymatrix\/ |anymatrix|>, \r\n% an extensible matrix collection, by Nick and Mantas Mikaitis.\r\n\r\n%% |expm|\r\n% This is very personal for me.\r\n% Thirty or forty years ago, Charlie Van Loan and I were regarded as\r\n% authorities on computing the matrix exponential, $e^{A}$.  \r\n% The function |expm| has been in MATLAB since its very beginning.\r\n% Around twenty years ago, we ceded the authority title to Nick and\r\n% Awad Al-Mohy.  \r\n% <https:\/\/epubs.siam.org\/doi\/10.1137\/09074721X\r\n% Their code> for matrix exponential is now the basis for |expm|.\r\n\r\n%% Goodbye\r\n% Our business has lost one of its superstars.\r\n% I have lost a good friend, way too soon.\r\n% Goodbye Nick.\r\n\r\n##### SOURCE END ##### ac30e2690d564e9193ea9a266c65dd7a\r\n-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"overview-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/files\/nick.png\" class=\"img-responsive attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/div><!--introduction--><p>Nick Higham passed away last Saturday. Nick was a close friend of mine and a great friend of MATLAB. I will leave it to others to describe his research and teaching, his many honors, and his service to our community, especially SIAM. I have just a few, more personal, comments.... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/2024\/01\/25\/nick-higham-1961-2024\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":10985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6,16,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10982"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10997,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions\/10997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}