Konrad Osterwalder

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Konrad Osterwalder (born June 3, 1942 in Frauenfeld ) is a Swiss physicist and mathematician . From 1995 to 2007 he was rector of the ETH Zurich and from 2007 to 2013 rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo .

UNU Rector Osterwalder (left) with UNHCR Commissioner Gutteres at a press conference in Rio

life and work

Osterwalder went to high school in Frauenfeld and studied physics (and philosophy) at the ETH Zurich from 1961 to 1965 . After his military service he was there from 1966 to 1970 and was assistant in 1970 Klaus Hepp and Res Jost doctorate . He then worked as a postdoc at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University in 1970/1 . In 1973 he was Assistant Professor and from 1973 Associate Professor at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts) . In 1977 he was appointed full professor for mathematical physics at the ETH Zurich.

From 1995 to 2007 Konrad Osterwalder was rector of the ETH Zurich . Osterwalder was also President ad interim of ETH Zurich for several months in order to bridge the period between the resignation of ETH President Ernst Hafen (November 2, 2006) and the assumption of office of the new ETH President Ralph Eichler (September 1, 2007). Until the end of 2006 Konrad Osterwalder was also chairman of the Bologna project management of the Swiss Rectors' Conference ( CRUS ). From 2007 to 2013 Osterwalder was Rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo .

Osterwalder was u. a. Visiting professor at the University of Texas in Austin , Harvard, at IHES near Paris, at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich , the La Sapienza University in Rome , the Universities of Naples and Tokyo and at the Weizmann Institute for Science in Israel . In 1970 he received the ETH medal. From 1974 to 1978 he was a Sloan Research Fellow . He is an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki and a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society .

Konrad Osterwalder is also a member of the management bodies of the École polytechnique , École des Mines in Paris , the Politecnico di Milano , the University of Italian Switzerland , the Technical University of Darmstadt (chair) and is a member of the Club of Rome .

Osterwalder deals with constructive quantum field theory . He is best known for the Osterwalder-Schrader axioms, which he formulated in 1973 at Harvard with Robert Schrader . They provide a mathematical underpinning of the Euclidean formulation of quantum field theory.

He is married and has three children.

literature

  • Ulrich Gäbler and Konrad Osterwalder: A new face for the European university landscape. The Bologna Process and the Study Reform in Switzerland , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, November 16, 2001, 85.

Web links

Commons : Konrad Osterwalder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References

  1. ↑ Prof. Dr. Konrad Osterwalder: Fifth Rector (2007-2013). In: UNU: History and Background. un.edu, accessed on October 12, 2018 .
  2. ^ Osterwalder, Schrader "Axioms for Euclidean Greens Functions", Communications in Mathematical Physics, Part 1, Vol. 31, 1973, pp. 83-112, Part 2, Vol. 42, 1975, pp. 281-305
personal data
SURNAME Osterwalder, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss physicist and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Frauenfeld