QnAs

QnAs with Gilbert Strang

f the worlds mathematicians,

Gilbert Strang is possibly the
most visibleor at least among
the most frequently viewed.
Millions of students from the Americas,
Africa, China, Europe, India, and Singapore have watched Strangs lectures on
linear algebra courtesy of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT)s OpenCourseWare Web site (1), and many have
e-mailed him to ask for one-on-one help.
A former president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM),
author of several textbooks (29), and 2009
electee to the National Academy of Sciences, Strang wrote the book on linear
algebraand his text has changed how the
material is taught. Strang recently spoke
with PNAS about the importance of linear
algebra for todays research, as well as his
recent work on the matrices used in signal
processing, a branch of mathematics used
to construct tools as diverse as MRI scanners, music synthesizers, and speech-totext converters.

PNAS: Science is complex. Where does lin-

ear algebra t in, and why is it considered

indispensable?

Strang: From the life sciences to engi-

neering and information networks, scientists are generating inconceivable amounts

of data. Magnetic resonance scans produce millions of images; microarrays span
entire genomes; the Internet is an enormous graph. The goal is to nd structure:
we need a language that can manipulate
and make sense of the information. Linear
algebra is very often the right language,
and it deals well with the structure it nds.
PNAS: What discovery spurred your interest in applied mathematics?
Strang: The nite element method of solv-

to math majors. This new class caught on

immediately with science and engineering
students, and not just at MIT. The textbook and the videos came out of this
course, and MITs new initiative (OpenCourseWare) videotaped classes and put
them online so that everyone could learn.
Im not sure why viewers like the videos. I
think one part is that its the real course,
not some TV program that is heavy on
ashy graphics. Moving linear algebra
from theory into practice brings in a much
wider audience. There is still a place for
instructors who are teaching directly and
personally a subject they are excited about.
Maybe that comes through in the videos.
At least, I hope so.
PNAS: Your recent work on banded ma-

trices with banded inverses has applications for signal processing. What are these
matrices and how are they useful?
Gilbert Strang.

rst book was about the mathematical

foundations of nite elements (2).
PNAS: How did SIAM help you envision

how to better promote these applications?

Strang: The SIAM community showed me
that the way we were teaching linear algebra was divorced from its applications.
While president [19992000], I worked to
make new connections. There is now a
SIAM activity group on imaging, one on life
sciences, and the largest is on computational science. Because of these connections, members have become more actively
involved in issues that affect society. For
example, SIAM members contributed to
tracking and predicting the spread of oil
spilled into the Gulf of Mexico in the spring
of 2010.

ing partial differential equations. That was

a major moment for me. It was a new way to
solve differential equations using simple
trial functions. In the early 1970s, engineers
and scientists were writing huge software
packages using the nite element method
to solve structural problems, computing
forces and stresses. The nite element
method is used all of the time now in solid
and uid mechanics, to design airplanes,
and to model the heart. That opened my
eyes, and I realized that the world of
mathematical applications was exciting. My

Strang: My work on nite elements helped

me realize that the tools of linear algebra
were for everybody, although we werent
teaching it that way. Changing that was my
lifework. The rst step was to create
a more applied version of a small linear
algebra class that had been mostly taught

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT OpenCourseWare. Available at: ocw.mit.edu. Accessed January 4,
2011.
2. Strang G, Fix G (2008) An Analysis of the Finite Element
Method. (Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA),
2nd Ed.
3. Strang G (2009) Introduction to Linear Algebra
(Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA), 4th Ed.

4. Strang G (2007) Computational Science and Engineering

(Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA).
5. Strang G, Nguyen T (1996) Wavelets and Filter Banks
(Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA).
6. Strang G (1986) Introduction to Applied Mathematics
(Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA).
7. Strang G, Borre K (1997) Linear Algebra, Geodesy, and
GPS (Wellesley-Cambridge Press, Welleseley, MA).

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1101136108

PNAS: Your linear algebra textbook and

online lectures have become a sensation
among international and American students alike. Why, do you suppose?

Strang: A banded matrix is a square array

of numbers that are mostly zeros, except
for those numbers that are close to the
main diagonal. When youre working with
billions of numbers, most of them better
be zero! One common use is in wavelet
signal processing. If a doctor is looking at
a medical image for a tumor, that image
must be processed from the machines raw
data, which is mathematically represented
as arrays of numbers. The image might be
transformed and then compressed, manipulated to increase the resolution, and
then uncompressed. These steps involve
matrix transformations: if the transformed
matrix is banded and its inverse is banded,
the calculations go very fast because of so
many zeros. You can quickly nd the
needle in the haystack of data.
PNAS: What does the future of applied mathematics look like from where you stand?
Strang: Applications to the life sciences are
exploding. Information networks are too
models of those networks show up everywhere, from neural maps to the Internet.
Pure and applied mathematics both contribute to our understanding of these elds.
Science and mathematics make for a wonderful life. Youre working with people who
are doing their best to solve problems. It is
not easy, and that makes it exciting. When
they succeed, its great for everybody.

Farooq Ahmed, Science Writer

8. Strang G (2010) Calculus (Wellesley-Cambridge Press,
Welleseley, MA), 2nd Ed.
9. Strang G (2006) Linear Algebra and Its Applications
(Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA), 4th Ed.

PNAS | March 15, 2011 | vol. 108 | no. 11 | 4273