About the Department

Results and contributions from mathematics are the foundation of many technical innovations. However their meaning is not always clear. Mathematical processes underlie modern forms of communication and enable secure data exchange and e-business. Optimization processes support logistical challenges in the trade of goods. Engineering, medical-technical, ecological, and economic solutions and innovations are often based off of mathematical analyses and the simulations of highly complex structures.

Yet mathematics is not only important in high-technology. It often plays a crucial and unnoticed role in many fields within everyday life and helps with decision-making: optimized traffic light circuits direct the flow of traffic, statistical test methods prove the effectiveness of medicines and therapies, all kinds of risks in many areas of economics and business must be quantifized and evaluated. The meaning of mathematics as a lively science amounts to nothing more than its direct ability to be applied to real problems in science and practice. Basic research is likewise a fundamental and necessary pillar of mathematics for future developments.

The focuses of the RWTH Aachen Department of Mathematics' research work are algebra and computer algebra, analysis, computational engineering science, differential equations, logic, numerics, optimization, statistics, and number theory, as well as general mathematic modeling in the engineering, life, and economic sciences. Interdisciplinary and application-oriented research is as much a part of the Aachen mathematics as is the realization-oriented research.