James M. Ortega

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James M. Ortega was born on June 15, 1932 in Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico and received a B.S. degree in Mathematics in 1954. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford in 1962.

Dr. Ortega worked as a mathematician for the Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque and Belcomm, in Washington, D.C. In 1964 he joined the mathematics faculty at the University of Maryland and became professor of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics in 1969. In 1961 he took a leave and served as visiting professor at the University of California in San Diego. In 1972 he was appointed director of ICASE ("Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering") at the NASA research center at Langley, Virginia and in 1973 he became an adjunct professor at the College of William and Mary and at the University of Virginia.

Professor Ortega has served on the editorial boards of the American Mathematical Society and the the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He is the author of "Numerical Analysis: A Second Course" (Academic Press 1972) and the co-author (with W. Reinholdt) of "Iterative Solutions of non-Linear Equations in Several Variables" (Academic Press, 1970). He has published extensively in the general area of numerical analysis and has directed a number of Ph.D. dissertations and the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia.

Professor Ortega became head of the Mathematics Department at N. C. State University in 1977. Although his background and experience were almost ideally suited to N.C. State, his tenure as department head was somewhat tumultuous. Ortega wanted to have the department become a nationally-acknowledged center of Applied Mathematics. Some of the faculty felt that he was pushing them to change their fields toward more applied areas. He also tried to impress on the younger professors that they must apply for research grants. Nowadays, getting a research grant is expected for a faculty member to get promoted, however, at that time, that was not the case, and some of the faculty resented the pressure.

Ortega had laudable aims and tried hard to achieve them. Eventually, he evidently felt that he had lost the support of many of the faculty and did not receive sufficient backing from the administration, and he resigned in 1979.

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James Ortega died on October 24, 2008, The following obituary is from the N(umerical) A(nalysis) net digest: the N(umerical) A(nalysis) net digest:

From: Jorge More Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:44:13 -0600 Subject: Jim Ortega, 1932 - 2008

James M. Ortega (1932-2008)

Jim Ortega, a leader in scientific computing, died October 24, 2008 in Melbourne Beach, Florida.

Jim Ortega received a PhD in Mathematics from Stanford University in 1962 under George Forsythe. He joined the University of Maryland in 1964 and became professor of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Applied Mathematics in 1969. At Maryland he produced the classic "Iterative Solutions of non-Linear Equations in Several Variables" (Academic Press, 1970), in collaboration with Werner Rheinboldt.

From 1973-77 he was the founding director of ICASE ("Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering") at NASA's research center in Langley, Virginia, and then he became head of the Mathematics Department at N.C. State University in 1977.

Jim Ortega joined the University of Virginia in 1979 as Charles Henderson professor and chairman of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. In addition to advising 14 PhD students at UVA, he wrote 9 books during his tenure there. He retired in 1996.

Jim moved to Melbourne Beach after his retirement and followed a long-time interest by attending classes in astrophysics at the Florida Institute of Technology. He contacted Terry Oswalt, chair of the Physics & Space Sciences Department at FIT, after learning from a newspaper article that the department was trying to obtain a telescope. This contact eventually led to a donation of $150,000 by Jim and Sarah Ortega to help finance a 32" telescope, now known as the Ortega reflecting telescope. The Ortegas also established a fund to benefit students.

He had a huge impact on his students, and on those that knew him. He will be missed.

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