James Renegar received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983, after earning a B.S. from Rice University, Houston, TX, in 1978. He is a Professor in the School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, where he has been on the Faculty since 1987, and served as Director 2004-09. In his research, Renegar focuses on developing mathematical foundations for a variety of algorithmic issues pertaining to continuous optimization and to the numerical solution of systems of algebraic nonlinear equations. This includes creating new families of algorithms possessing novel properties, as well as deepening our understanding of existing algorithms and modeling techniques - especially our understanding of the effects of round-off errors and imprecise data.