Richard Höfer deals with the mathematical properties of differential equations that describe physical phenomena. He achieved sensational breakthroughs in the mathematically rigorous treatment of suspensions, i.e. solutions of small particles in liquids or gases. You could model each individual particle with its own equation, but when you are dealing with several thousand or even millions of particles, an overarching macroscopic approach becomes necessary. The aim is to gain fundamental insights into interactions that are difficult to explore through experiments or numerical simulations. For example, he models clouds of particles instead of modeling individual particles. Suspensions are omnipresent in nature, for example in aerosols and biological fluids. Richard Höfer's theoretical findings can therefore also be relevant for environmental and medical technology.
Richard Höfer completed his PhD in 2019 under Juan Velázquez at the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn. In 2020, he went to the Université de Bordeaux as a postdoctoral researcher and was a Leopoldina postdoctoral researcher at the Université Paris Cité from 2021 to 2022. He was then appointed Associate Professor at the University of Regensburg. In 2020, he received the Hausdorff Prize for the best PhD thesis of the 2018/19 academic year in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bonn.
The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize has been awarded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG) to scientists at an early stage of their careers since 1977 and is intended to recognize and encourage outstanding scientific work. Ten prizes are awarded each year, each endowed with 200,000 euros. The prize money can be used for further scientific research for up to three years. Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (1911-2000) was a German experimental physicist and President of the DFG.