Joseph F. Traub

Joseph F. Traub

Joseph Frederick Traub (born June 24, 1932), is an American computer scientist. He is the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He has held positions at Bell Laboratories, University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia, as well as sabbatical positions at Stanford, Berkeley, Princeton, California Institute of Technology, and Technical University, Munich. Traub is the author or editor of ten monographs and some 120 papers in computer science, mathematics, physics, finance, and economics. In 1959 he began his work on optimal iteration theory culminating in his 1964 monograph, which is still in print. Subsequently he pioneered work with Henryk Woźniakowski on computational complexity applied to continuous scientific problems (information-based complexity). He has collaborated in creating significant new algorithms including the Jenkins-Traub Algorithm for Polynomial Zeros, as well as the Kung-Traub, Shaw-Traub, and Brent-Traub algorithms. One of his current research areas is continuous quantum computing.

From 1971 to 1979 he headed the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon and led it from a critical period to eminence (see Joseph Traub digital archive at Carnegie Mellon). From 1979 to 1989 he was the founding Chair of the Computer Science Department at Columbia. From 1986 to 1992 he served as founding Chair of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Academies and is again serving as Chair. Traub was founding Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Complexity, in 1985 and continues in that capacity. Both his research and institution building work have had a major impact on the field of computer science.