Avner Friedman
One of the goals of the conference is to honor Professor Avner Friedman on the occasion of his 90th birthday.
Professor Friedman is a world renown expert in the field of differential equations and a great variety of its applications. Very few mathematicians in the world have an active career which spreads over almost 70 years. Since 1956 when the 24-year-old Avner received his Ph. D from Hebrew University he has published over 500 papers and 25 books. The impact of his work is attested by 46.000 citations (h-index of 88) and his one book on parabolic equations became a standard reference in the field cited over 10.000 times. His remarkable range of research interests spreads from theoretical PDEs, stochastic systems, free boundary problems, differential games to various engineering applications and, more recently, mathematical biology. His work is a great example of interdisciplinary research linking theory with applications which is also a goal of our conference. For several years as director of the Institute of Mathematics and Applications, IMA in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he pursued efforts to connect mathematics with industry. Remarkably, at the age of 70 he shifted his interest to biomedicine founding the Mathematical Biosciences Institute in Columbus, Ohio where mathematicians, biologist and medical researchers from all over the world could meet and collaborate at numerous workshops.
In recognition of his contributions, he was elected President of SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) and the President of the Society for Mathematical Biology. He is a member of the American Academy of Sciences.
During his professional career Avner has held academic positions at various prestigious universities in the United States including Stanford University and University of California at Berkley. He has educated a large number of Ph. D students and Postdocs from all over the world and he made his footprints lecturing on all the continents. He has visited Lodz several times lecturing to Ph. D students at Lodz University of Technology.
At the age of 90 he remains remarkably active, claiming he is in his best and most productive period. A great example to all of us!
Happy Birthday to Avner and many more years of exciting life and research!
Lecturing at African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Cape Town, South Africa, February 2012
Lecturing at Lodz University of Technology, Poland, October 2016
On Piotrkowska street, Lodz, June 2013