Gilbert Strang

William Gilbert Strang (born November 27, 1934 ) is an American mathematician known for his contributions to finite element theory, the calculus of variations, wavelet analysis and linear Algebra.

He has made many contributions to mathematics education, including publishing mathematics textbooks.

Strang was the MathWorks Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He taught Linear Algebra, Computational Science, and Engineering, Learning from Data, and his lectures are freely available through MIT OpenCourseWare.

Strang was born in Chicago in 1934.

His parents William and Mary Catherine Strang migrated to the USA from Scotland.

He and his sister Vivian grew up in Washington DC and Cincinnati, and went to high school at Principia in St. Louis.

Strang graduated from MIT in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

He then received a Rhodes Scholarship to University of Oxford, where he received his B.A. and M.A. from Balliol College in 1957.

While at Oxford, Strang met his future wife Jillian Shannon, and they married in 1958.

Following his Ph.D. at UCLA, they have lived in Wellesley, Massachusetts for almost all of his 62 years on the MIT faculty.

The Strangs have three sons David, John, and Robert and describe themselves as a very close-knit family.

He retired on May 15, 2023 after giving his final Linear Algebra and Learning from Data lecture at MIT.

Strang's teaching has focused on linear Algebra which has helped the subject become essential for students of many majors.

His linear Algebra video lectures are popular on YouTube and MIT OpenCourseware.

Strang founded Wellesley-Cambridge Press to publish Introduction to Linear Algebra (now in 6th edition) and ten other books.

Strang earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1959 as a National Science Foundation Fellow, under the supervision of Peter K. Henrici.

His dissertation was titled "Difference Methods for Mixed Boundary Value Problems".

Following his PhD studies, from 1959 to 1961, Strang was a C. L. E. Moore instructor at M.I.T. in the Mathematics department.

From 1961-1962 he was a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford University.

From 1962 until 2023, Strang was a mathematics professor at MIT.

He has received Honorary Titles and Fellowships from the following institutes: