Since October 1, 2023, he has been strengthening the team at the Faculty of Mathematics. Kronbichler's hobby is the development of computer-aided processes that describe certain technical or physiological processes - such as the combustion process in an aircraft turbine or the blood flow in the human cardiovascular system. “It's about complex processes that cannot be described with a simple formula, but rather require approximate procedures,” explains Martin Kronbichler.
In the medical field, simulations of such processes can, for example, result in tools that help doctors select the right treatment option.
Adapt procedures to technical progress
Martin Kronbichler and his team optimize existing numerical methods and make them fit for use on modern supercomputers. “We always go back to the mathematical basics and adapt the algorithms to the current technical conditions,” explains the researcher. This makes the procedures faster. “Of course, the computers themselves are becoming more and more powerful, so the simulations would become faster even without our intervention,” says Kronbichler. But the mathematical adjustment of the algorithms speeds things up even further and becomes more important with each new computer generation.
Martin Kronbichler's application-oriented approach means that he is well networked in various disciplines. The researcher is already looking forward to new cooperation partners from the various faculties of the Ruhr University. At the beginning of every collaboration, the foundations for communication must first be created. “The language of mathematics is precise, but dry and sometimes difficult for the applied disciplines,” says Kronbichler, adding with a laugh: “Some people are afraid at first when a mathematician comes along. However, over the years I have learned some of the vocabulary from medicine and engineering so that I can understand myself with colleagues from different disciplines. And it's part of it that I acquire a certain new vocabulary for every collaboration." The mathematician is certainly happy about the networking opportunities that the many departments at the Ruhr University offer him.
To person
Martin Kronbichler studied industrial mathematics at the Technical University of Munich and completed his doctorate at Uppsala University in Sweden in 2012. He then worked for nine months as a software developer at Forma Comsol AB in Stockholm, then returned to the Technical University of Munich as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2021, Kronbichler took on a substitute professorship at Uppsala University. In 2022 he was appointed Professor of High-Performance Scientific Computing at the University of Augsburg. Since October 2023, Martin Kronbichler has held the professorship for applied numerics at the Ruhr University Bochum.
