The “Norwegian Workshop on Mathematical Optimization, Nonlinear and Variational Analysis” will be arranged at NTNU from April 26 – 28, 2023 

By Elisabeth and Markus Köbis

The aim of this workshop is to bring together experts from different countries with researchers in Norway to exchange the latest contributions and present the state of the art in the fields of nonlinear and variational analysis, set and vector optimization, operations research and life sciences.

These theories have burgeoned tremendously due to rich applications in economics, management science, engineering, medicine, and behavioral sciences. Due to such important applications from practice, these topics are vibrant research areas and expanding branches of applied mathematics. 

The main subject areas, nonlinear and variational analysisset and vector optimization,  operations research and life sciences, are closely interrelated and have important applications in biology and medicine.

The invited speaker Prof. Dr. Christiane Tammer is well-known for her exceptional work on variational analysis. Among others, she co-authored the monograph “Set-Valued optimization – An Introduction with Applications, Springer, 2015” (together with Prof. Dr. Akhtar Khan and Prof. Dr. Constantin Zalinescu, who will also attend the workshop), the first book on the vibrant field of set optimization. Since this topic is rather modern and extends the field of vector optimization, we anticipate that many researchers will be attracted by Prof. Dr. Christiane Tammer’s talk and are certain that this workshop will inspire new collaborations.

One of the founders of variational analysis, Prof. Dr. Boris Mordukhovich, will also participate at the workshop as an invited speaker. Boris Mordukhovich is an American mathematician recognized for his groundbreaking results in the areas of nonlinear analysis, optimization, and control theory. With more than 400 research publications, he has been honored as a highly cited researcher in mathematics. His book “Variational Analysis and Generalized Differentiation, I: Basic Theory; II: Applications. Grundlehren Series (Fundamental Principles of Mathematical Sciences), Vol. 330 and 331, Springer, 2006”, is considered to be one of the fundamental works in variational analysis.

We will also have the opportunity to welcome Prof. Dr. Akhtar Khan from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, as an invited speaker. He is well recognized for his work in optimization and inverse problems. His recent monograph Uncertainty Quantification in Variational Inequalities: Theory, Numerics, and Applications, authored together with J. Gwinner, B. Jadamba, and F. Racitiis the first book on uncertainty quantification in variational inequalities. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Basca Jadamba from Rochester Institute of Technology, USA, will participate and share her expert knowledge on numerical optimization, inverse problems and uncertainty quantification.

The before-mentioned fundamental research has strong applications in the field of Operations Research. We therefore expect that this conference will be a bridge between the theoretic research and solution concepts for practical problems arising in economics, management science, engineering, mechanics, and behavioral sciences, etc. Therefore, we believe that this conference will be of great significance for scientists who are working in Operations Research. One of the speakers, Dr. Torkel Haufmann, will present his work on heuristics for solving the problems he is investigating in the optimization group at SINTEF in Oslo. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Alexander Bockmayr from Free University Berlin will enrich the meeting with his knowledge on mathematical and computational methods for systems biology. Additionally, the invited speaker Iain George Johnston from UiB will talk about his research on optimal behaviour of cellular societies as an application of multi-objective optimization in cell biology.

Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Jan-Joachim Rückmann from UiB, who is an expert in the theory and applications of nonlinear optimization, will build a bridge between theoretical optimization and algorithms for their practical applications.

We will also hear from Dr. Christian Günther (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany), who is working in algorithmic optimization and has successfully developed the Software Facility Location Optimizer.

Several members of the optimization group at the Department of Mathematical Sciences, NTNU, will take part in the workshop by presenting their recent research activities (Dietmar Hömberg, Paul Schmölling, Shipra Singh and Vu Trung Hieu).

The main objective of this workshop is to discuss new results, develop further ideas and encourage collaborations among participants to create new knowledge which will be beneficial for theoretical and practical problems as well as for applications. 

Novel results developed during the workshop will be published in a Special Issue of the international journal Optimization: A Journal of Mathematical Programming and Operations Research (Taylor & Francis). The Call for Papers can be found here. The workshop will include a one-hour poster session, where contributors will have the opportunity to present their research and get into discussions with the participants.

This workshop, which is mainly supported by the project Pure Mathematics in Norway, funded by Trond Mohn Foundation and Tromsø Research Foundation, will be open to anyone interested, but will be especially attractive to PhD-students, postdocs and researchers working in the related fields. Anyone interested is welcome to attend, submit an abstract for giving a talk and/or presenting a poster. However, since the number of places is limited, we ask prospective attendants to send an email to Elisabeth.kobis@ntnu.no to register for the event. 

Any questions regarding the workshop can be directed to the scientific committee (Elisabeth Köbis (NTNU), Markus Köbis (NTNU), Jan-Joachim Rückmann (UiB) and Christiane Tammer (MLU Halle, Germany)).

Mathematics in Technology – Strategic Research Area at NTNU
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