News Release

Pavel Gurevich wins the 2014 von Kaven Award

DFG honors mathematician for outstanding work on nonlinear partial differential equations

Grant and Award Announcement

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

This news release is available in German.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has selected mathematician PD Pavel Gurevich, Ph.D., from the Free University of Berlin to receive the 2014 von Kaven Award. Gurevich conducts research on nonlinear partial differential equations, focussing in particular on hysteresis phenomena and pattern-forming processes. The award of 10,000 euros will be conferred for the ninth time and presented on 19 November 2014 at the public Gauß lecture given under the auspices of the German Mathematical Society (DMV) in Karlsruhe.

Originally from Russia, Pavel Gurevich has been a researcher at the Free University of Berlin since 2008, where he was initially involved in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre "Complex Nonlinear Processes: Analysis - Simulation - Control - Optimisation". Since 2010 he has been working in the Collaborative Research Centre "Control of Self-Organising Nonlinear Systems: Theoretical Methods and Concepts of Application", which brings together mathematics, theoretical physics, chemistry and information technology. With a DFG-funded Heisenberg fellowship since 2013, Gurevich has dedicated more of his time to investigating "Non-Variational Hysteresis: Self-Organisation and Pattern Formation". He has developed new methods in this field which look at the existence and stability of solutions and which could help to answer questions in physics and in life and engineering sciences.

In 2009 at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, Pavel Gurevich was awarded the title "Doctor of Physical-Mathematical Sciences", which is equivalent to a German habilitation. His subject was "Elliptic Problems with Non-Local Boundary Conditions and Feller Semi-Groups". The Russian Higher Attestation Commission (VAK) recognised the paper as the best in mathematics in 2008. This and other publications on "Problems with Non-Smooth Boundaries" have appeared in respected journals and are frequently cited. While working towards his habilitation, a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation brought the award winner to the University of Heidelberg from 2006 to 2008. He was awarded his doctorate in 2002 at the University of Lomonossow in Moscow, after completing a Master's degree at the State Aviation Institute there in 2000. Pavel Gurevich published for the first time two years before he graduated.

The von Kaven Award is generally presented to early career researchers in mathematics in the Heisenberg Programme to honour particular achievements. The decision is made by the DFG's mathematics review board. The prize money is provided by the foundation of the same name, which mathematician Herbert von Kaven and the DFG established jointly in 2004. Von Kaven, who was originally from Detmold, died in 2009 at the age of 101. Even at an advanced age, he continued to be interested in the fundamental aspects of mathematics and throughout his life he was dedicated to promoting research in the field.

The Gauß lecture, at which the award will be presented, is a lecture on mathematics designed to appeal to a wider public with an interest in the subject. The keynote speech this year will be given by Professor Robert Ghrist from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, on "The Mathematics of Holes". The event will take place on 19 November 2014 from 5 pm.

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Further Information

Media contact:
DFG Press and Public Relations
Tel. +49 228 885-2443, presse@dfg.de

DFG Programme Contact
Dr. Frank Kiefer, Physics, Mathematics and Geosciences Division
Tel. +49 228 885-2567, Frank.Kiefer@dfg.de

For more information on the von Kaven Award, please visit http://www.dfg.de/en/funded_projects/prizewinners/von_kaven_award

For more online information about the DFG's Heisenberg Programme, see http://www.dfg.de/heisenberg/en

For more information on the German Mathematical Society's Gauß lecture, go to https://dmv.mathematik.de/index.php/2012-07-31-15-39-48/gauss-vorlesung and http://www.math.kit.edu/iag5/event/gaussvorlesung/de, the website of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Both pages are available in German only.


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