John C. Butcher

John Charles Butcher ONZM ( John Charles Butcher, born March 31, 1933, Auckland ) is a New Zealand mathematician. He has specialized on numerical methods for solving ordinary differential equations in the linear range of general procedures, in particular the Runge- Kutta method and in this area is one of the most important persons of the past decades.

Butcher received his doctorate in 1961 at the University of Sydney with Harry Messel (The application of digital computers to cosmic ray physics in calculations ). He was a professor at the University of Auckland and holds an honorary professorship there. Named after him is the Butcher tableau for the representation of Runge- Kutta methods.

Writings

• The Numerical Analysis of Ordinary Differential Equations: Runge- Kutta and General Linear Methods, in 1987.