Professor Yuji Nakatsukasa awarded Whitehead Prize

The Whitehead Prize is one of the LMS’s most prestigious honours, recognising mathematicians who have made exceptional contributions to the discipline at an earlier stage of their careers.

Professor Nakatsukasa develops mathematical algorithms that make it possible to solve large and complex computational problems more quickly and accurately. His research in numerical linear algebra and approximation theory has applications across fields including data science, deep learning and quantum computing.

In its citation, the LMS praises Professor Nakatsukasa’s ‘significant and wide-ranging contributions to numerical analysis, especially in numerical linear algebra and approximation theory’. It describes his Adaptive Antoulas–Anderson (AAA) algorithm as ‘one of the landmark achievements in numerical analysis over the past decade’ and commends his pioneering work on algorithms that combine creativity, ingenuity and practical utility.

Professor Nakatsukasa said he was ‘delighted and honoured’ to receive the Whitehead Prize. 

Reflecting on his celebrated work, he added: ‘Numerical analysis is a branch of mathematics that combines rigorous and elegant theory with the practical goal of solving problems efficiently and accurately. It underpins many recent advances across science, engineering, AI and the wider world. It is exciting to see challenging problems solved by algorithms we develop. I am very fortunate to work with incredible collaborators, and I look forward to contributing together to the field’s future development.’

The Whitehead Prize was announced at the London Mathematical Society’s General Meeting on Friday 3 July.