Robert J. Plemmons

Robert James Plemmons (born December 18, 1938) is an American mathematician specializing in computational mathematics.

[1] He is the emeritus Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Wake Forest University.

[1] During the early 1960s, Plemmons played professional baseball for four years with the Baltimore Orioles' minor league clubs.

[3][4] Plemmons attended graduate school at Auburn University from 1961 to 1965, receiving his PhD in Applied mathematics in 1965.

[1] He then held research positions with Martin Marietta in Orlando, Florida, and the National Security Agency in Ft.

[1] At Auburn in the early 1960s, Plemmons' work with PhD advisors Richard Ball and Emilie Haynsworth[1] was focused on finite semigroups theory.

[23] In the mid-to-late 1980s until mid 1990s, his research focused on numerical linear algebra,[24][25][26] specifically in Matrix Theory with applications in Markov chains and nonnegative matrices.

[27][28] Plemmons has been recognized internationally for his significant contributions to the field, celebrated at the Linear Algebra: Theory, Applications, and Computations Conference held at Wake Forest University in 1999 in honor of Plemmons' 60th birthday,[1] and the International Workshop on Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications held in Hong Kong in 2013 in honor of his 75th birthday.