Heinz Werner Engl (born 28 March 1953) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who served as the rector of the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. Engl was born in

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

. He studied at the

Johannes Kepler University of Linz The Johannes Kepler University Linz (German: ''Johannes Kepler Universität Linz'', short: ''JKU'') is a public university in Austria. It is located in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. It offers bachelor's, master's, diploma and doctoral degre ...

, where he earned an engineering diploma in technical mathematics in 1975, a doctorate in 1977, and a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in 1979. He worked at the University of Linz starting in 1976 as an assistant professor, was promoted and tenured in 1981, and became a full professor in 1988. His research in this period concerned

inverse problem An inverse problem in science is the process of calculating from a set of observations the causal factors that produced them: for example, calculating an image in X-ray computed tomography, sound source reconstruction, source reconstruction in ac ...

s in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

, with students including

Barbara Kaltenbacher Barbara Kaltenbacher is an Austrian mathematician whose research concerns inverse problems, regularization, and PDE-constrained optimization, with applications including the mathematical modeling of piezoelectricity and nonlinear acoustics. She is ...

. He became vice-rector of the University of Vienna in 2007, and rector in 2011. With Martin Hanke and Andreas Neubauer he is the author of the book ''Regularization of Inverse Problems'' (Mathematics and its Applications 375, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996). Engl won the

Theodor Körner Prize The Theodor Körner Prize (German: ''Theodor-Körner-Preis'') is a set of annual Austrian awards bestowed by the Theodor Körner Fund in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances. The prize is awarded at the University of Vienna. The priz ...

in 1978, the Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1998, and the ICIAM Pioneer Prize (jointly with

Ingrid Daubechies Baroness Ingrid Daubechies ( ; ; born 17 August 1954) is a Belgian-American physicist and mathematician. She is best known for her work with wavelets in image compression. Daubechies is recognized for her study of the mathematical methods that ...

) in 2007. He became a corresponding member of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences The Austrian Academy of Sciences (; ÖAW) is a legal entity under the special protection of the Republic of Austria. According to the statutes of the Academy its mission is to promote the sciences and humanities in every respect and in every fi ...

in 2000, and a full member in 2003. He became a fellow of the

Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is a professional society dedicated to applied mathematics, computational science, and data science through research, publications, and community. SIAM is the world's largest scientific soci ...

in 2009, an inaugural fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

in 2012, and a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

in 2013. He is also a member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, ) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 38 Nobel Prize laureates. The European Academy of Sciences and ...

. In 2012,

Saarland University Saarland University (, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate. He was a member of the Rotary Club Linz Süd from 1994 to 2012 and has been a member of the Rotary Club Vienna ever since. Heinz Engl is married and, according to his own statement, grandfather of Eleon Engl-Misirlisoy, the New Year's baby 2020 of the US capital Washington D.C.ORF News: Red-white-red New Year's Baby in Washington D.C.
retrieved 2020-01-03.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engl, Heinz W. 1953 births Living people Austrian mathematicians Johannes Kepler University Linz alumni Academic staff of Johannes Kepler University Linz Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Members of Academia Europaea Members of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Rectors of universities in Austria