Charles George Broyden

Charles George Broyden (3 February 1933 – 20 May 2011) was a mathematician who specialized in optimization problems and numerical linear algebra. While a physicist working at English Electric Company from 1961 to 1965, he adapted the Davidon–Fletcher–Powell formula to solving some nonlinear systems of equations that he was working with, leading to his widely cited 1965 paper, "A class of methods for solving nonlinear simultaneous equations". After leaving the University of Essex, he continued his research career in the Netherlands and Italy, being awarded the chair at University of Bologna. In later years, he began focusing on numerical linear algebra, in particular conjugate gradient methods and their taxonomy.