9 March 2026: Seminar by Professor Emeritus Guenter Toerner, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Topic

A guided tour through mathematical landscapes with people, their changes in recent decades and the job market for mathematicians in Germany

Abstract

In his lecture, he would like to take the audience on a journey through mathematics in Germany over the last fifty years. Much has changed, and we would do well to take these changes into account and help our students to succeed. His dissertation in 1974 was on a geometric topic, then he switched to non-commutative ring theory, wrote many papers with a Canadian colleague, and his last lectures and seminars were on scheduling theory. Two years ago, he was still advising a steel company and submitting proposals for the production planning of steel slabs. He became aware that many mathematical papers by Chinese authors on the mathematics of steel production can be found in journals. He will outline the job market for mathematicians in Germany.

Bio

Prof. Dr. Günter Törner was a full professor for Mathematics and Didactics of Mathematics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany from 1978 to 2014 and has been an emeritus professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen since 2014. He has authored more than 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals in discrete mathematics, algebra, optimization theory, industrial mathematics and mathematics education. He has supervised 22 PhD students in mathematics and mathematics education and has been a visiting professor 15 times at numerous Canadian universities as well as twice in Australia. From 1997-2004 he was a member of the Presidential Board of the German Mathematical Society (DMV), serving as Secretary of the Executive Board 2005-12 and from 2010-2016 he was Chair of the Committee of Mathematics Education of the European Mathematical Society (EMS).