Rate My Professor Gilbert Strang

Gilbert Strang is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his S.B. from MIT in 1955, studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1957, and completed his Ph.D. at UCLA in 1959. He joined the MIT mathematics faculty in 1962 and became a full professor in 1970. He served as the MathWorks Professor of Mathematics from 2011 until his retirement in July 2023, when he became Professor Emeritus.

Strang's research focuses on numerical analysis, partial differential equations, linear algebra, finite elements, and wavelets. He has authored numerous textbooks, including multiple editions of Introduction to Linear Algebra, Linear Algebra and Learning from Data, Computational Science and Engineering, and others on differential equations, wavelets, and applied mathematics. His video lectures on linear algebra and related topics, available through MIT OpenCourseWare, have reached a wide audience. Strang served as President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics from 1999 to 2000 and held leadership roles including Chair of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics. He has received awards such as the Chauvenet Prize, the SIAM Award for Distinguished Service, the Von Neumann Prize Medal, the Haimo Prize, and the Irwin Sizer Award for the Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.