Olga Holtz has made substantial contributions to several mathematical areas including algebra, numerical linear algebra, approximation theory, theoretical computer science and numerical analysis. Some of these are spectacular results such as the proof of the Newton inequalities for M-matrices, the fundamental work on accurately evaluating polynomials in finite arithmetic and the proof that all group theory based fast matrix multiplication methods are numerically stable. These are not only very strong results in theoretical computer science that may have a fundamental impact on computational methods of the coming years, but they also required very deep mathematical theory in the context of finite group theory. Her new work on zonotopal algebra is a substantial contribution to combinatorial commutative algebra. Olga Holtz is a mathematician who truly transcends the traditional boundaries of applied versus pure mathematics.