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Richard Brent (scientist)

Richard P. Brent
Born (1946-04-20) 20 April 1946 (age 70)
Melbourne
Nationality Australian
Fields Mathematics, computer science
Institutions Australian National University
Alma mater Stanford University
Doctoral advisors Gene H. Golub
George Forsythe
Doctoral students Andreas Griewank[]
Notable awards Hannan Medal (2005)

Richard Peirce Brent (born 20 April 1946, Melbourne) is an Australian mathematician and computer scientist. He is an emeritus professor at the Australian National University and a conjoint professor at the University of Newcastle (Australia). From March 2005 to March 2010 he was a Federation Fellow at the Australian National University. His research interests include number theory (in particular factorisation), random number generators, computer architecture, and analysis of algorithms.

In 1973, he published a root-finding algorithm (an algorithm for solving equations numerically) which is now known as Brent's method.

In 1975 he and Eugene Salamin independently conceived the Salamin–Brent algorithm, used in high-precision calculation of . At the same time, he showed that all the elementary functions (such as log(x), sin(x) etc.) can be evaluated to high precision in the same time as (apart from a small constant factor) using the arithmetic-geometric mean of Carl Friedrich Gauss.


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