On 27 March 2025, the Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics at Paderborn University bid farewell to Prof. Dr. Michael Dellnitz with a festive colloquium. Numerous guests from academia, research and Paderborn's urban society accepted the invitation to honour the long-standing dean and respected mathematician.
The afternoon began with a musical prelude by Ulrich Lettermann, accompanied by Eckhard Wiemann, who introduced the guests to the festive setting of the event. After the welcome by Prof. Dr Jürgen Klüners, Dean of the Faculty, and the introductory greetings by Prof. Dr Johannes Blömer, Vice President for Research and Young Academics, Prof. Dr Balázs Kovács from the Institute of Mathematics and Dr Andreas Jolmes, exciting and appreciative presentations followed.
Prof. Dr Oliver Junge (Technical University of Munich) and Prof. Dr Christof Schütte (Free University of Berlin, President of the Zuse Institute Berlin) captivated the audience with their in-depth yet personal presentations on Prof. Dr Dellnitz's research topics. The two lectures not only underlined his scientific achievements, but also the significant role he played in the development and promotion of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at Paderborn University.
The event not only offered a comprehensive review of Prof. Dr Dellnitz's impressive scientific career, but also the opportunity to honour his numerous services to the faculty and the university. Particular emphasis was placed on his role as initiator and long-standing chairman of the Paderborn Institute for Industrial Mathematics, which has made a significant contribution to successful cooperation between science and industry over the last two decades.
The colloquium came to a festive conclusion with a musical finale and a subsequent reception with coffee and refreshments.
The Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics would like to thank all guests and looks forward to continuing to work with Prof. Dr Dellnitz, even after his retirement. We wish him all the best and every success in his new phase of life.
Prof Dr Michael Dellnitz
After completing his doctorate in Hamburg (1989), spending several years as a postdoc in the USA and working as a professor at the University of Bayreuth (from 1995), Prof Dr Michael Dellnitz was appointed to the Chair of Applied Mathematics at Paderborn University in 1998. He then received three further appointments at other universities - Bremen (2001), Berlin (2004) and Sydney (2007) - all of which he turned down in favour of Paderborn University. He was a member of the University's Research Committee and Ethics Committee for several years. From 2006 to 2008, Prof. Dr. Dellnitz was Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Mathematics.
His research concerns the fields of dynamic systems and optimisation. In this context, Prof. Dr Dellnitz was involved in various DFG Collaborative Research Centres and was also the spokesperson for a DFG Research Training Group on scientific computing. To date, there are almost 7000 citations for his publications. Some of these research results have also led to concrete applications; to coordinate such projects, Prof. Dr Dellnitz became Chairman of the Paderborn Institute for Industrial Mathematics 20 years ago.
Prof. Dr Dellnitz was co-editor of several specialist journals and in particular the first Editor-in-Chief of the international Journal of Computational Dynamics. He was also a Fellow of the Zuse Institute Berlin and John von Neumann Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Munich. Finally, six of his former doctoral candidates now also hold professorships and some of them can already look forward to their "academic offspring".
