“Welcome Aboard!”“The Applications Motivate Me.”Prof. Dr. Hendrik Ranocha strengthens the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences.

20 April 2022, by Ranocha/Newsroom

Photo: UHH/Esfandiari

Prof. Dr. Hendrik Ranocha has been working at the Department of Mathematics since March 2022.

Every year, Universität Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time, we introduce mathematician Prof. Dr. Hendrik Ranocha.

Prof. Dr. Hendrik Ranocha left the University of Münster for Hamburg, where he has been working in the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences since 1 March 2022.

My research area in 3 sentences: 

Essentially, I work on numerical procedures for evolution equations, meaning time-dependent problems. This could be, for example, the flow of liquids or gases such as the airflow around cars or airplanes—or the flow of particles from solar wind, for example around planets or comets. I try to find structures and to convert them into numerical procedures, which are important for modeling such flows.

I explain what I do to friends and family as follows:

Take, for example, the airflow around a car: the density of the gas plays a role. For physical reasons, it cannot be negative. These kinds of conditions are important auxiliary conditions that need to be considered in numerical procedures because otherwise, the equations would become meaningless. I am concerned with the question as to which such auxiliary conditions play a role in numerical procedures and what are they good for. Ideally, we achieve better results with fewer calculations.

I need the following for my research:

To start with, I need a pen and paper for the theoretical aspects of my work. In the next step, however, I also need a computer with the necessary computing power, because software development is an integral part of my research. For concrete applications, we then need a supercomputer.

In Hamburg, the city and the University, I am looking forward to:

The City of Hamburg is cosmopolitan, very lively, and each neighborhood has its own charms. Although Hamburg, in contrast to Braunschweig and Münster, is a large city, there are several beautiful green areas and there is a lot on offer.

This is why students should come to my lectures:

Thanks to my background in physics and mathematics, I always have fun when students want to understand applications. What I would like to teach them is how much of the world they can put into a computer and simulate. Furthermore, I’d like to to teach them how to approach these topics from physics and math perspectives and solve problems.

My research is important to society, or to help resolve the following issues: 

 It is definitely the applications that motivate me. But I would see these more for partners in the industrial sector who use them in engineering and industrial contexts. Scientific colleagues from Saudi Arabia with whom I’ve already worked have, for example, cooperation projects with McLaren to simulate airflow around Formel-1 cars. Or also with Boeing to simulate airflow around airplanes. That means that I work together with people who then work with direct users. With regard to overall numerical mathematics, my research extends from numerical basic research all the way to final application.

See the pages of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences for a detailed interview tih Prof. Ranocha.