Charles George Broyden was a mathematician who specialized in optimization problems and numerical linear algebra. While a physicist working at English Electric Company from 1961–1965, he adapted the Davidon–Fletcher–Powell formula to solving some nonlinear systems of equations that he was working with, leading to his widely cited 1965 paper, "A class of methods for solving nonlinear simultaneous equations". He was a lecturer at UCW Aberystwyth from 1965–1967. He later became a senior lecturer at University of Essex

University of Essex

The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

 from 1967–1970, where he independently discovered the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) method

BFGS method

In numerical optimization, the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno method is a method for solving nonlinear optimization problems ....

. After leaving the University of Essex, he continued his research career in Holland and Italy, being awarded the chair at University of Bologna

University of Bologna

The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...

. In later years, he began focusing on numerical linear algebra, in particular conjugate gradient methods and their taxonomy.

Broyden died from complications of a severe stroke at the age of 78. He was survived by his wife, Joan, and their three children Chris, Jane and Nick.