Shmuel Gal

{{Short description|Israeli mathematician and professor of statistics}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Shmuel Gal

| image = shmuelgal2019.gif

| native_name = שמואל גל

| native_name_lang = he

| birth_date = 1940

| birth_place =

| fields = Mathematics, Statistics

| workplaces = University of Haifa

| alma_mater = Hebrew University of Jerusalem

| doctoral_advisor = Aryeh Dvoretzky

| known_for = Gal's accurate tables method, Princess and monster game, search games, rendezvous problems

}}

Shmuel Gal ({{langx|he|שמואל גל}}; born 1940) is a mathematician and professor of statistics at the University of Haifa in Israel.

He devised the Gal's accurate tables method for the computer evaluation of elementary functions.{{cite journal |title=Computing elementary functions: A new approach for achieving high accuracy and good performance |date=1986 |last1=Gal |first1=Shmuel |publisher= in "Accurate scientific computations", Springer}}{{cite journal |title=An accurate elementary mathematical library for the IEEE floating point standard |date=March 1991 |volume=17 |pages=26–45 |last1=Gal |first1=Shmuel |last2=Bachelis |first2=Boris |journal=ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software |doi=10.1145/103147.103151|s2cid=16245519 |doi-access=free }} With Zvi Yehudai he developed in 1993 a new algorithm for sorting which is used by IBM.{{cite web |url=http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/wwwr_thinkresearch.nsf/pages/speeding396.html |title=Speeding of a sort |last1=Gwynne |first1=Peter |publisher=IBM Research}}

Gal has solved the Princess and monster game{{cite journal |author=Gal Shmuel |title=Search games with mobile and immobile hider |journal=SIAM J. Control Optim. |volume=17 |year=1979 |issue=1 |pages=99–122 |doi=10.1137/0317009 |mr=0516859}} and made several significant contributions to the area of search games.{{cite book|first1=S. |last1=Gal |title=Search Games |publisher=Academic Press |location=New York |year=1980 |isbn=0-12-273850-0}}S. Alpern and S. Gal (2003). The Theory of Search Games and Rendezvous, Springer {{ISBN|0-7923-7468-1}}.{{cite journal |author=M. Chrobak |title=A princess swimming in the fog looking for a monster cow |journal=ACM SIGACT News |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=74–78 |year=2004 |doi=10.1145/992287.992304|s2cid=8687739 }}

He has been working on rendezvous problems with his collaborative colleagues Steve Alpern, Vic Baston, and John Howard.S. Alpern and S. Gal (1995). Rendezvous Search on the Line with Distinguishable Players, SIAM J. Control and Optimization.V. Baston and S. Gal (1998). Rendezvous on the line when the players' initial distance is given by an unknown probability distribution, SIAM J. Control and Optimization.S. Alpern and S. Gal (2002). Searching for an Agent who may or may not Want to be Found, OPERATIONS RESEARCH.S. Gal and J. Howard (2005). Rendezvous-evasion search in two boxes, OPERATIONS RESEARCH.

Gal received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His thesis advisor was Aryeh Dvoretzky.