George Fix | |
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![]() American mathematician George Fix
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Born |
Dallas, Texas, USA |
10 May 1939
Died | 10 March 2002 Clemson, South Carolina, USA |
(aged 62)
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Mathematics |
Alma mater |
Texas A&M University Rice University Harvard University |
Doctoral advisor | Garrett Birkhoff |
Known for | Finite Element Method |
George J. Fix (10 May 1939 – 10 March 2002) was an American mathematician who collaborated on several seminal papers and books in the field of finite element method. In addition to his work in mathematics, Fix was a beer and homebrewing enthusiast and educator, as well as the author of several books about brewing. He died of cancer in 2002.
Fix was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas, and attended Texas A&M University on a baseball scholarship, where he earned a Bachelor of Science. He received his Master of Science degree from Rice University, and in 1968, he earned a Ph.D from Harvard.
After earning his Ph.D, Fix stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor until 1972. While there, he met Gilbert Strang, and collaborated with him on a paper regarding the Fourier analysis of finite element methods (FEM). In 1973, he and Strang published An Analysis of the Finite Element Method, a book that gave the latest advances in FEM "publicity and respectability". (Max Gunzburger of Iowa State University called it "one of the most important and influential applied mathematics books ever published.")
Fix moved to University of Maryland in 1972, and then to University of Michigan. He served as the chair of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University for over 20 years, and served in the same role at University of Texas at Arlington and Clemson University. He also taught at University of Bonn.