一次幸运的暑期经历

——Gene Golub SIAM Summer School 2013

Gene Golub SIAM Summer School 2013 in conjunction with the 3rd International Summer School on Numerical Linear Algebra——The 9th Shanghai Summer School on Analysis and Numerics in Modern Sciences 于七月22至八月2号在上海复旦大学光华双子楼成功举办。

能够参加这次暑期学校，纯属巧合，当然我也为参加了这次暑期学校而感到十分幸运。这原本是针对数值代数方向开的暑期学校，而我当前做的和数值代数还是有些距离的。但不管怎样，经过这短短十多天的学习还是感觉有所收获，至少开阔了眼界。同时，我也会将所收集到的材料和所学到的东西在返回到学校后能让更多的人了解和参考。

Gene Golub SIAM Summer School每隔两年举办一次，今年有幸落户于中国，所以选拔时对中国学生算是略微照顾。一共45名正式的学员，包括9名中国学员，这和中国人口在世界上的比例（1：5）基本持平。另外还有来自美国，英国，加拿大，俄罗斯，法国，德国，西班牙，瑞士，索尔维亚，瑞典，奥地利，伊朗，黎巴嫩，捷克，中国台湾等15个国家和地区的学生。为了照顾每个国家的学生，所以每个学校最多来了两个（复旦除外，三个，毕竟是人家的主场）。

说起幸运，还得从今年的元月份说起。那时候学校都快放假了，事实上，我也没什么心思天天窝在paper上，整天呆在实验室东看看，西瞅瞅的，后来就很偶然的在网上发现了这个暑期学校。当看到后我原本也没有打算去申请，因为申请需要很多东西，包括两封博导的推荐信，和一些琐碎的申请材料，而截止日期又是二月一号。但出于实在无聊，干脆就行动了起来。我是属于要干就要干完，不敢则拉到的人，就这样经过两天的精心准备，最终还是把材料发了过去，并且找了院系内两位德高望重的教授帮忙写了推荐信，并由他们负责发给了暑期学校秘书。就这样很快，我就收到了那边的通知，说他们已经收到了两位教授的推荐信。但是录取结果到3月27才收到。后来才知道，很多优秀的人博士生都没能入选，听主办方的一位负责人说主要是为了照顾每个学校的学生。此时，我又深吸一口气，不然我铁定也没戏（光北大的人都用不完）

听这边工作人员说为了举办这次暑期学校，在去年八月已经着手准备了，为此前后他们已经付出一年多的努力，再此表示非常的感谢。另外这次暑期学校还得到了众多单位的支持，包括Siam，ASFMA，NSF，Nag，NSFC，上海教学中心，复旦大学数学与科学学院，复旦大学研究生院等等组织关心和大力支持，在这里也表示感谢。

因为前两个周是必须参加的，而第三周是可以根据自己的情况选听的，所以目前暑期学校还在进行中。最后预祝本次暑期学校能够取得圆满的成功。

本次暑期学校的主页请参看

http://math.fudan.edu.cn/g2s3/about.html

附：Nickhigham的博客：

http://nickhigham.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/gene-golub-siam-summer-school-2013/

Gene Golub SIAM Summer School 2013

Posted onAugust 9, 2013by Nick Higham

A two week Gene Golub SIAM summer school on matrix functions and matrix equations was held at Fudan University, Shanghai from July 22 to August 2, 2013, in conjunction with the 3rd International Summer School on Numerical Linear Algebra and the 9th Shanghai Summer School on Analysis and Numerics in Modern Sciences. This was the fourth Golub Summer School and the second devoted to numerical linear algebra.

45 PhD students attended, coming from institutions in 15 countries. The lecturers were me and Marlis Hochbruck (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) in week 1 and Peter Benner (Max Planck Institute, Magdeburg), Ren-Cang Li (University of Texas, Arlington) and Xiaoye (Sherry) Li (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA) in week 2.

My 10 hours of lectures were on matrix functions. The slides and exercises can be downloaded from my website.

The lectures were held in the mornings in the GuangHua Twin Tower – an impressive, marbled 30-storey building on the Fudan campus. Attendees were grateful that the lecture room was air conditioned, as the Shanghai summer was at its peak of temperature and humidity, and on the Friday of the first week a record temperature of 40.6 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) was reached in the city.

The GuangHua Twin Tower from my room in the Fuxuan Hotel.

Afternoons contained exercise sessions, 10-minute presentations by the students on their thesis work, and a guest seminar by Hongguo Xu (University of Kansas) in week 1 and Heike Fassbender (TU Braunschweig) in week 2. These were fully attended and it was great to see the students working so enthusiastically together and interacting with the lecturers.

For the lunches and dinners the students and lecturers sat together in randomized positions – an excellent idea on the part of the local organizers which helped ensure that people got to know each other.

Group photos at conferences can be rather shambolic. This one was the most professional I’ve ever seen. When we arrived at the designated spot the photographer had already set up three rows of metal staging and the photo was quickly taken (just as well given the scorching heat even at 8.15 am). Laminated photos were delivered to participants the same afternoon.

The local organizers are to be congratulated on an excellent job. In particular, Weiguo Gao and Yangfeng Su (Fudan University) and Zhaojun Bai (UC Davis) were busy every day making sure that the event ran smoothly. Daniel Szyld (Temple University) must also be mentioned for his excellent work over the last 5 years in chairing the SIAM committee that manages the Gene Golub SIAM Summer School program.

The school was generously supported by the SIAM Gene Golub Summer School fund, the Shanghai Center for the Mathematical Sciences, ISFMA (Sino French Institute of Applied Mathematics), the NSF (USA) and NAG.

Three things will stand out in my memory from the School. First, the enthusiasm of the students, among whom will no doubt be some of the future leaders of our field. (See the blog post by my PhD student Sam Relton.) Second, sitting in the plush 15th floor cafe of the GuangHua Tower chatting to other participants over a cafe latte with smooth jazz coming over the speakers. Third, the Chinese (motor) cyclists, who carry a wondrous variety of goods on their bikes and ride without any attention to the traffic signals but miraculously seem to avoid accidents. See the photos below taken on the short walk from the hotel to the department!

In summing up I can do no better than to endorse Charlie Van Loan’s words in describing the first Gene Golub Summer School in 2010: “The idea of a summer school for graduate students from around the world is the perfect way to honor Gene’s memory. It is exactly the kind of activity that Gene loved to promote.”