Michael J. D. Powell

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Michael James David Powell FRS, FIMA (London, 1936 – ) is a British mathematics Professor, retired from Cambridge University, where he earned his bachelors degree and, in 1979, his D.Sc. [1]. He is known for his extensive work in numerical analysis, especially nonlinear optimization. He was a founding member of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and a founding Managing Editor of the Journal for Numerical Analysis.

His mathematical contributions include the Davidon-Fletcher-Powell formula. Minimization by iterated quadratic interpolation is sometimes referred to as Powell's method. He is the author of numerous scientific papers and of several books, most notably Approximation Theory and Methods [2].