"It is an honour for us to have one of the leading mathematicians of our time as our guest" - with these words, Prof. Dr Martin Kolb, co-organiser of the Paderborn Weierstrass Lecture, introduced this year's keynote speaker. Prof. Dr Alessio Figalli, who has received multiple awards, gave a lecture on "Beyond Boundaries: Recent Advances in the Obstacle Problem" to a packed lecture theatre on Friday, 26 April. The scientist was awarded the Fields Medal in 2018. It is the highest honour in the field of mathematics, comparable to the Nobel Prize. Figalli, a professor at ETH Zurich, specialises in partial differential equations, which are among the most important tools in the natural sciences and engineering. In 2012, he received the EMS Prize of the European Mathematical Society (EMS).
Prof Dr René Fahr, Vice President for Knowledge and Technology Transfer at Paderborn University, welcomed the attendees on behalf of the Presidential Board and explained the framework of the lecture, referring to the importance of Weierstrass as "one of the city's most important sons and one of the most outstanding mathematicians of all time". The lecture, which has been held annually since 2011, is named after Karl Weierstrass (1815-1897), who graduated from the Theodorianum grammar school in Paderborn in 1834 as the best graduate of the school. He was one of the most important mathematicians of the 19th century and is considered the founder of modern analysis, among other things. The Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Mathematics, Prof Dr Jürgen Klüners, was therefore all the more pleased to welcome the Theodorianum students and others in attendance. Klüners conveyed greetings from the Dean's Office and introduced the lecture.
In his historical lecture, Prof Dr Tilman Sauer from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz presented original works from Albert Einstein's correspondence with other scientists. In particular, he focussed on the so-called "compass problem", in which it must be proven that every construction that can be carried out with a compass and ruler can also be carried out with the compass alone.
Figalli, who impressed not only with his technical excellence but also with his wit, spoke about elastic membranes in connection with the "obstacle problem".
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