The development and analysis of computational methods (and ultimately of program packages) for the minimization and the approximation of functions, and for the approximate solution of equations, such as linear or nonlinear (systems of) equations and differential or integral equations. Originally part of every mathematician's work, the subject is now often taught in computer science departments because of the tremendous impact which computers have had on its development. Research focuses mainly on the numerical solution of (nonlinear) partial differential equations and the minimization of functions.