John Charles Butcher (born 31 March 1933) is a New Zealand

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who specialises in

numerical methods Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods t ...

for the solution of

ordinary differential equations In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable. As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) and involves the derivatives ...

.. Butcher works on multistage methods for

initial value problem In multivariable calculus, an initial value problem (IVP) is an ordinary differential equation together with an initial condition which specifies the value of the unknown function at a given point in the domain. Modeling a system in physics or ...

s, such as Runge-Kutta and general linear methods. The Butcher group and the

Butcher tableau A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishme ...

are named after him. More recently, he is investigating a new type of method with stability identical to that of a Runge-Kutta method.

Biography

Butcher studied mathematics at Auckland University College - BSc and MSc - and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

- PhD (1961) and DSc. Positions held are as aside. He was awarded the Jones Medal from the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2010, for his "exceptional lifetime work on numerical methods for the solution of differential equations and leadership in the development of New Zealand mathematical sciences." In 2011, he received the Van Wijngaarden Award. In the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours, Butcher was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have r ...

, for services to mathematics.

Publications

*. *. * John C. Butcher: "Trees, B-series and exponential integrators", IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis Vol.30, No. 1 (Jan. 2010), pp. 131–140. DOI:10.1093/imanum/drn086. *. * J.C.Butcher:"Trees and B-series", Numerical Algorithms (2019), vol.81, pp. 1311–1325. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11075-018-0643-7 * John C. Butcher: "B-Series : Algebraic Analysis of Numerical Methods", Springer(SSCM, volume 55), ISBN 978-3030709556 (April, 2021).

References

External links

Auckland Home page

Personal Home page

Homepage of John C. Butcher
* 1933 births Living people New Zealand computer scientists Numerical analysts Academic staff of the University of Auckland Academic staff of the University of Canterbury Academic staff of the University of Sydney Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit 20th-century New Zealand mathematicians 21st-century New Zealand mathematicians {{compu-scientist-stub