mathematics

Jorge Nocedal

Jorge Nocedal is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jorge Nocedal rather than just read about it. In short: Jorge Nocedal (born 1952) is an applied mathematician, computer scientist and the Walter P. Murphy professor at Northwestern University who in 2017 received the John Von Neumann Theory Prize.

Key takeaways

Jorge Nocedal belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jorge Nocedal to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jorge Nocedal from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jorge Nocedal (born 1952) is an applied mathematician, computer scientist and the Walter P. Murphy professor at Northwestern University who in 2017 received the John Von Neumann Theory Prize. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2020. Nocedal specializes in nonlinear optimization, both in the deterministic and stochastic setting. The motivation for his current algorithmic and theoretical research stems from applications in image and speech recognition, recommendation systems, and search engines. In the past, he has also worked on equilibrium problems with application in robotics, traffics, and games, optimization applications in finance, as well as PDE-constrained optimization.

Biography Nocedal was born and raised in Mexico. He obtained a B.Sc. in physics from the National University of Mexico in 1974. From 1974 to 1978, Nocedal studied at Rice University, where he obtained a PhD in mathematical sciences under the supervision of Richard A. Tapia. Prior to joining Northwestern University in 1983, Nocedal spent three years (1978–1981) as an assistant professor at the National University of Mexico and two years (1981–1983) as a research assistant at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU. Nocedal joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department at Northwestern University in 1983. He held this appointment until 2012, before joining the Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences department, where he served as the David and Karen Sachs Professor and chair from 2013 to 2017.

Contributions Nocedal is well known for his research in nonlinear optimization, particularly for his work on L-BFGS and his textbook Numerical Optimization. In 2001, Nocedal co-founded Ziena Optimization Inc. and co-developed the KNITRO software package. Nocedal was a chief scientist at Ziena Optimization Inc. from 2002 to 2012 before the company was subsequently bought by Artelys in 2015.

Awards and honors Nocedal has won numerous awards in the fields of nonlinear optimization, applied mathematics and operations research. In 1998, he was an invited speaker to the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin. He was named an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in 2004. He received the George B. Dantzig Prize in 2012 and the Charles Broyden Prize in 2009. He was also named a SIAM Fellow in 2010. In 2017, he received the INFORMS John Von Neumann Theory Prize. Nocedal was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2020 for contributions to the theory, design, and implementation of optimization algorithms and machine learning software.

References

External links Nocedal's home page at Northwestern Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University Publications from Google Scholar

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jorge Nocedal

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jorge Nocedal claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jorge Nocedal before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jorge Nocedal ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jorge Nocedal

In research: Jorge Nocedal appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jorge Nocedal in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jorge Nocedal is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1952 births, 20th-century Mexican mathematicians, 21st-century Mexican mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jorge Nocedal outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jorge Nocedal in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jorge Nocedal means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jorge Nocedal out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jorge Nocedal in simple terms?

Jorge Nocedal (born 1952) is an applied mathematician, computer scientist and the Walter P. Murphy professor at Northwestern University who in 2017 received the John Von Neumann Theory Prize.

Why does Jorge Nocedal matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jorge Nocedal?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jorge Nocedal.