Gilbert Strang is a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focuses on analysis, linear algebra and PDEs. He is the author of many textbooks and his service to the mathematics community is extensive. He has spent time both as President of SIAM and as Chair of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, and has been a member of various other committees and boards. He has received several awards for his research and teaching, including the Chauvenet Prize (1976), the Award for Distinguished Service (SIAM, 2003), the Graduate School Teaching Award (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003) and the Von Neumann Prize Medal (US Association for Computational Mechanics, 2005), among others. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.