J. Alan George

J. Alan George, FRSC (born November 9, 1943) is a computer scientist and university administrator.

In the academic world, George is best known for his extensive and wide-ranging contributions to the field of numerical linear algebra, specifically computation with sparse matrices.

He is also well known at the University of Waterloo for having served in a number of senior administrative positions, notably Vice-President, Provost, and Dean of Mathematics.

Education

George received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Alberta in 1964 and 1966 respectively, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1971. His doctoral thesis was entitled Computer Implementation of the Finite Element Method and his supervisor was George Forsythe .

Administrative service

He served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo from 1980 to 1986. He held the position of Vice-President, Academic & Provost from 1988 until June 30, 1993. He again assumed the role of Dean of Mathematics on December 3, 1997.

His name has been given to an award, the J. Alan George Award, given by Waterloo's undergraduate Mathematics Society to an undergraduate completing studies in the Faculty of Mathematics who has shown exemplary service to student life during in the duration of his or her studies.

Controversy

In 1989, George attracted some attention for his decision, as Provost, to bar the Internet newsgroup rec.humor.funny from Waterloo's news service.

He also raised eyebrows in 2000, when he overrode a professor's assigned marks for a calculus class.

External link

• J. Alan George UW webpage