International Conference on Numerical Analysis and Optimization

dedicated to M.J.D. Powell's 70th Birthday

--Yaxiang Yuan

An international on Numerical Analysis and Optimization conference has held in the State Key Laboratory of Scientific and Engineering Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing from September 25 to 28, 2006. This conference was dedicated to the 70th birthday of Professor M.J.D. Powell, who has made great contributions to both optimization and numerical analysis.

The President of Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of CAS, Professor Guo Lei, the former president of Chinese Mathematical Society, Professor Yang Lo, and the general secretary elect of International Mathematical Union, Professor Martin Groetschel attended the opening ceremony of the conference. The conference had 80 participants, about 30 were from outside
China, including USA, UK, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, etc..

The invited lactures of the conference were:

²      H. Brunner (Memorial Uni of Newfoundland, CA) The numerical analysis of pantograph-type integral equations

²      M. Buhmann (University of Giessen, Germany) Limits of Radial Basis Function Interpolants

²      T. Coleman (University of Waterloo, Canada) A Financial Optimization Application: Asset Selection and Hedging under Basis Risk

²      A.R. Conn (IBM Watson Research Center, USA) Some New Results in Derivative Free Optimization

²      M. Fukushima (Kyoto University, Japan) An SQP-Type Algorithm for Nonlinear Second-Order Cone Programs

²      N. Gould (Reutherford Appleton Lab, UK) SRLP-EQP filter methods for constrained optimization

²      A. Iserles (University of Cambridge, UK) From high oscillation to rapid approximation

²      F. Jarre (Uni. of Duesseldorf, Germany) An augmented primal-dual method for linear conic minimization

²      J.M. Martinez (State Uni. of Campinas, Brazil) Six Optimization Methods for Protein Alignment

²      M. Overton (New York University, USA) Variable Metric Methods for Nonsmooth Optimization

²      M.J.D. Powell (University of Cambridge, UK) An extension of the NEWUOA software that allows bounds on the variables.

²      L.Q. Qi (City University, Hong Kong) Z-Eigenvalue Methods for A Global Polynomial Optimization Problem

²      K.Schittkowski(Uni. of Bayereuth, Germany) A Trust Region SQP-Method for Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming

²      D. Shanno (Rutgers University, USA) Constraint Relaxation and Interior-Point Methods

²      T. Steihaug (Uni. of Bergen, Norway) The CPR and Beyond

²      R. Tapia (Rice University, USA) Inverse, Shifted Inverse, and Rayleigh Quotient Iteration as Newton's Method

²      Ph. Toint (University of Namur, Belgium) Multilevel optimization and multigrid techniques

²      M. Todd (Cornell University, USA) Linear Convergence of a Modified Frank-Wolfe Algorithm on the Simplex

The conference provided a good opportunity for scientists from different countries to discuss the recent advances in numerical analysis and optimization and exchange ideas. It also played an
improtant role in promoting academic collaborations between scientists in China and those from abroad in these two fields. Many students from China attended this conference (either by
paying half of the registration fees, or by attending the lectures without formally registering), they were happy to have the chance to meet, to listen and to discuss with so many famous experts.

The conference also organized quite a few non-academic activities, such as trips to the Great Wall and the forbidden city, a dinner party in the Summer Palace, and a culture show in the famous Lao-Se Tea House.

The conference was a great success, and all the participants enjoyed the conference very much.