Margaret H. Wright

Margaret H. Wright (born February 18, 1944) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. She is a Silver Professor of Computer Science and former chair of the Computer Science department at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, with research interests in optimization, linear algebra, and scientific computing. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 for development of numerical optimization algorithms and for leadership in the applied mathematics community. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Early life and education Wright was born in San Francisco in 1944, and spent her early childhood in Hanford, California. Both of her parents were medical doctors. and linear programming. At that time, it was legal for employers to discriminate against women, and she was earning significantly less than men with lower qualifications. Her thesis was on numerical methods for nonlinearly constrained optimization.

Scientific career After obtaining her Ph.D. in 1976, Wright joined George Dantzig's Systems Optimization Laboratory (SOL) in the Department of Operations Research at Stanford University as a Senior Research Associate. She was eventually joined at SOL by Gill Murray and Philip Gill, whom she had worked with when she was a graduate student, and Michael Saunders. They were known as the "Gang of Four" and published many scientific papers together, always using alphabetical order of their names.

In 1988, Wright moved east and joined Bell Labs, where she was ultimately promoted to Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. She was named a Bell Labs Fellow in 1999. Wright was involved in a number of projects during her years at Bell Labs. She worked in wireless systems engineering. She also investigated the popular Nelder–Mead method for derivative-free numerical optimization.

In 2001, Wright joined the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences as the Silver Professor of Computer Science and a professor of mathematics. She served as Chair of Computer Science from 2001 to 2009.

Professional Service Wright has several in numerous service roles including chairing and serving on prize and search committees, serving on a variety of national and international advisory committees, chairing several important reviews, etc. Highlights include the following:

From 1995 to 1996, she served as the (first female) president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). She served on the SIAM Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2005 and its council from 1987 to 1989. She was SIAM Vice President at-large from 1990 to 1993.

From 1999 to 2004, she was editor-in-chief of SIAM Review.

In 2010, she chaired the UK International Review of the Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Awards and Recognitions In 1997, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

In 1998, she was delivered the Etta Z. Falconer Lecture, an award from the Association for Women in Mathematics that honors "women who have made distinguished contributions to the mathematical sciences or mathematics education."

In 2000, she was selected to deliver the Noether Lecture, an award of the Association for Women in Mathematics honoring "women who have made fundamental and sustained contributions to the mathematical sciences."

In 2001, she was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2000, she received the SIAM Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession.

In 2002, she received the AMS Award for Distinguished Public Service.

In 2002, she became a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

In 2003, she received an honorary doctorate (D. Math) from the University of Waterloo.

In 2005, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

In 2008, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Technology by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden.

In 2009, she became a Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).

In 2012, she became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

In 2013, she was named an honorary member of the London Mathematical Society.

In 2016, she was named a Senior Fellow in the Simons Society of Fellows.

In 2019, she was awarded the John von Neumann Prize "in recognition of her pioneering contributions to the numerical solution of optimization problems and to the exposition of the subject." Her prize lecture was presented at ICIAM in Valencia, Spain on July 16, 2019.

Publications A list of her selected publications includes

P. E. Gill, W. Murray, and M. H. Wright, Practical Optimization, Academic Press, 1981, (republished by SIAM in 2019) P. E. Gill, W. Murray, M. A. Saunders, J. A. Tomlin, and M. H. Wright, On projected newton barrier methods for linear programming and an equivalence to Karmarkar's projective method, Mathematical Programming, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 183–209, June 1986, doi:10.1007/BF02592025 P. E. Gill, W. Murray, and M. H. Wright, Numerical Linear Algebra and Optimization, Addison-Wesley, 1991, (republished by SIAM in 2021) M. H. Wright, Interior methods for constrained optimization, Acta Numerica, Vol. 1, pp. 341–407, January 1992, doi:10.1017/S0962492900002300 J. C. Lagarias, J. A. Reeds, M. H. Wright, and P. E. Wright, Convergence properties of the Nelder—Mead simplex method in low dimensions, SIAM Journal on Optimization, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 112–147, January 1998, doi:10.1007/BF02592025 A. Forsgren, P. E. Gill, and M. H. Wright, Interior Methods for Nonlinear Optimization, SIAM Review, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 525–597, January 2002, doi:10.1137/S0036144502414942 M. Wright, The interior-point revolution in optimization: History, recent developments, and lasting consequences, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 39–56, September 2004, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-04-01040-7