Jan S. Hesthaven (born 10 December 1965) is a Danish mathematician, currently president of the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

. He was previously Vice President for Academic Affairs (starting in 2021) at EPFL (

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland". Like its sister institution E ...

) and held the Chair of Computational Mathematics and Simulation Science (MCSS). He is particularly known for contributions to the development, analysis and application of high-order accurate computational methods for time-dependent partial differential equations. He has also contributed substantially to the development of reduced order models and the application of neural networks and machine learning techniques to problems in science and engineering.

Career

Prof. Hesthaven obtained a Master of Science degree in computational physics from the

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark (), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and it is today ran ...

(DTU) in 1991. In 1995, he received a Ph.D. in Numerical Analysis from the Institute of Mathematical Modelling ( DTU) and in 2009 he was awarded the degree of Dr.Techn. from DTU for substantial and lasting contributions that has helped to move his research area forward and penetrated into applications. After graduation, he was appointed in 1995 as Visiting Assistant Professor at

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, then in 1999 as assistant professor and in 2003 he was promoted associate professor of

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 tenure at

where in July 2005 he was promoted to professor of applied mathematics. In 2006, he founded th
Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV)
at

and was its director until 2013. He served from Aug 2010 to June 2013 as founding deputy director of the Institute of Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics ICERM, an

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party * National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political g ...

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. In 2013, he joined EPFL (

) where he was appointed full professor of computational mathematics and simulation science, and shortly later, in February 2014, he founded the new unit of Scientific IT and Application Support (SCITAS) From 2016 to 2021 he served as Editor in Chief of

SIAM Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Journal of Scientific Computing. In February 2017, he became dean of the School of Basic Sciences (SB). In September 2020, he was appointed as Vice President for Academic Affairs at EPFL for a term starting in 2021. In January 2024, he was elected as the future president of the German

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public university, public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Ka ...

by the supervisory board. The election was confirmed by the Senate on 19 February 2024. He has assumed the presidency as of the 1st of October 2024.

Recognition

Brown University gave him their Philip J. Bray Award for Teaching Excellence in 2004. He was elected as a

Fellow in 2014. He was named to the 2023 class of Fellows 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, ...

, "for contributions to computational methods for PDEs, high-order accurate methods, and the reduced order method". In 2022 he as inducted as member of the

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters ({{Langx, da, Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab or ''Videnskabernes Selskab'') is a Danish academy of science. The Royal Danish Academy was established on 13 November 1742, and was create ...

. In 2023, he was elected as 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 ...

and the

European Academy of Sciences European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

. In 2024, the

awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his scientific contributions

Books

* * * *

Notes and references

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesthaven, Jan S Living people Danish mathematicians Danish academic administrators Technical University of Denmark alumni Academic staff of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 1965 births