Nick Trefethen elected to National Academy of Sciences

Nick Trefethen, professor of applied mathematics in residence at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Trefethen is among 120 members and 30 international members recognized this year by the Academy for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

A graduate of Harvard College, Trefethen returned to the university in 2023 after a 26-year career at the University of Oxford as a professor of numerical analysis. A renowned expert in scientific computing and a celebrated teacher and lecturer, Trefethen has expertise in many sub-areas of numerical analysis, including linear algebra, differential equations, approximation theory, and computational complex analysis.

Trefethen has received many honors for his research: Fellow of the Royal Society, member of the National Academy of Engineering, Gold Medal from the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, and the Naylor Prize from the London Mathematical Society. He is past president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the author of more than 130 journal articles, 40 essays, and eight books. His Ph.D. is from Stanford University.

Among Trefethen’s proudest personal honors is being the first-ever customer, in 1985, to buy a copy of MATLAB – the now-ubiquitous programming and numeric computation platform used by millions of engineers and scientists to develop algorithms and create models.

Membership in the National Academy of Sciences is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. Current NAS membership totals approximately 2,700 members and 500 international members.