A Conversation with Charlie Van Loan

Van Loan discusses his experiences with teaching, writing textbooks, administering degree programs, MatLab, matrices and more.Charlie Van Loan, who joined the CS Department in 1975, is well known for his work in scientific computing, especially in “Matrix Computations”. His text with that title, written with Gene Golub and first published in 1983, is now in its fourth edition. Website scholar.google.com claims 52,900 citations! It’s one of the most highly cited texts in all of mathematics and computing. Charlie has helped shape the direction and tone of the department in many ways. He served as chair for 7 years. He directed the undergrad program for 9 years, the MEng program for 3 years, and the PhD program for 5 years. He has several awards from Cornell for his teaching and advising, and two PhD advisees chose him for the Merrill Scholar Faculty Impact Award. Even as he retires (June 2016), Charlie continues serving Cornell, for he was elected Dean of the Faculty and assumed that position on July 1. Van Loan, with the help of interviewer Kavita Bala, discusses his experiences with teaching, writing textbooks, administering degree programs, MatLab, matrices, and more. Running Time: 56 min. http://hdl.handle.net/1813/412011_mizvmj6