John "Jack" Todd

John "Jack" Todd, a pioneer in the fields of computing and numerical analysis, has diedJohn "Jack" Todd, a pioneer in the fields of computing and numerical analysis, has died.Todd, who started his career in the days before computers or hand-held calculators, specialized in understanding how to find answers to complicated numerical questions.The logic by which today's computers operate "is very much the application of the kind of mathematics that Jack developed.Todd and his wife, matrix and number theorist Olga Taussky-Todd, came to the United States in 1947 to help establish the National Applied Mathematical Laboratories, where they helped launch the field of high-speed computer programming and analysis. The pair took teaching and research posts at Caltech in 1957.