Wolfgang Lück
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Lück is a German mathematician
who is an internationally recognized expert in Algebraic Topology
.
in 1981 and obtained his doctoral degree under Tammo tom Dieck. The title of his thesis was „Eine allgemeine Beschreibung für Faserungen auf projektiven Klassengruppen und Whiteheadgruppen“.
From 1982 on he was research assistant and from 1985 on he was assistant in Göttingen.
In 1989 Lück got his Habilitation
. In the year 1990/91 he was Associate Professor at the university of
University of Kentucky
in Lexington.
From 1991 until 1996 he was professor at the Universität Mainz, from 1996 until 2010 he has been teaching at the Universität Münster, since 2010 he works at Universität Bonn.
In 2003 he was awarded the Max-Planck-Forschungspreis and in 2008 the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
.
Lück has been working in the theory of L2-invariants (such as L2-Betti numbers and L2-cohomology
) of manifolds in algebraic topology, which were originally introduced by Michael Atiyah and
are defined by means of operator algebras. They have applications in group theory and geometry.
Since the beginning of 2009 Lück has been president of the Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, whose vice president he had been since 2006.
Since October 2011 Lück is Director of HIM (Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics, Bonn).
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
who is an internationally recognized expert in Algebraic Topology
Algebraic topology
Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics which uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to homotopy equivalence.Although algebraic topology...
.
Life and work
After obtaining his Abitur from the Ravensberger Gymnasium in Herford in 1975 he studied at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen where he obtained his DiplomDiplom
A Diplom is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Finland , Greece, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Ukraine...
in 1981 and obtained his doctoral degree under Tammo tom Dieck. The title of his thesis was „Eine allgemeine Beschreibung für Faserungen auf projektiven Klassengruppen und Whiteheadgruppen“.
From 1982 on he was research assistant and from 1985 on he was assistant in Göttingen.
In 1989 Lück got his Habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
. In the year 1990/91 he was Associate Professor at the university of
University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
in Lexington.
From 1991 until 1996 he was professor at the Universität Mainz, from 1996 until 2010 he has been teaching at the Universität Münster, since 2010 he works at Universität Bonn.
In 2003 he was awarded the Max-Planck-Forschungspreis and in 2008 the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize is a research prize awarded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft every year since 1985 to scientists working in Germany. This highest German research prize consists of a research grant of 2.5 million euro, to be used within seven years...
.
Lück has been working in the theory of L2-invariants (such as L2-Betti numbers and L2-cohomology
L² cohomology
In mathematics, L2 cohomology is a cohomology theory for smooth non-compact manifolds M with Riemannian metric. It is defined in the same way as de Rham cohomology except that one uses square-integrable differential forms...
) of manifolds in algebraic topology, which were originally introduced by Michael Atiyah and
are defined by means of operator algebras. They have applications in group theory and geometry.
Since the beginning of 2009 Lück has been president of the Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, whose vice president he had been since 2006.
Since October 2011 Lück is Director of HIM (Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics, Bonn).
Selected publications
- Transformation groups and algebraic K-theory, Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Springer, Bd.1408, 1989
- L2-Invariants: Theory and Application to Geometry and K-Theory, Springer, Ergebnisse der Mathematik, 2002
- with Kreck (Editor): The Novikov Conjecture – Geometry and Algebra, Oberwolfach Seminars, Birkhäuser 2004
- Algebraische Topologie:Homologie und Mannigfaltigkeiten, Vieweg 2005
- L2 Invarianten von Mannigfaltigkeiten und Gruppen, Jahresbericht DMV, Bd.99, 1997, Heft 3
- L2 Invariants and their application to geometry, group theory and spectral theory, in „Mathematics Unlimited – 2001 and Beyond“, Springer 2001
- Editor together with Farrell, Göttsche: Topology of High dimensional manifolds, ICTP Lecture Notes, 2002