Michael Struwe: farewell lecture

Laudatio by Robert Weismantel, Head of Department:

Welcome everybody to the farewell lecture of Michael Struwe and it is now my pleasure to introduce the speaker to you.

Professor Struwe - Michael - was born in Wuppertal in Germany and then studied mathematics at the University of Bonn, where he got his doctorate in 1980. He then stayed a little while further in Bonn as an assistant, and in-between made some longer visits to Paris and to ETH, before he finally decided to come to ETH. Then in 1986, Michael was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the department. And think about this, 1986. Now it is 2021, that means 35 year of ETH time, this is a lot.

Michael, in fact, became an Associate Professor in 1990 and in 1993 finally a full Professor. Michael Struwe’s research is, as you can see, art. That’s the way he writes, you can see it’s really like a painter in front a painting that he is starting to prepare. Now, seriously speaking, Michael Struwe’s research is about geometric analysis. In fact, his research focuses on non-linear partial differential equations and the calculus of variations, with many links to mathematical physics and to topics in differential geometry. If you go through his list of publications, then you can see that there are a few topics that really attracted his attention, over many many years and they recur. Four of them are: non-linear wave equations, Lane-Emden equation, heat equation and gradient flows.

What I also observed when I went through his list of publications: He has written two papers with colleagues from the maths department here at ETH. One is Tristan Rivière and the other one is Norbert Hungerbühler. I hope I didn’t overlook anybody but that’s at least two co-authors that I could find.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that Michael Struwe is so well-known. He received several prices: the Felix Hausdorff Preis of the University of Bonn, he was awarded a Cantor medal of the German Mathematical Society, he is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and he is also a member of Leopoldina, the national academy of sciences of Germany.

If you know Michael, there are a few things that one should also mention: The first thing is, besides research, his teaching. He is a really gifted teacher. He has won three Golden Owls over the years and I know that there are a number of younger faculty here that come to the lectures when Michael Struwe teaches Analysis to really learn how he does it.

The final thing is, and that also comes as no surprise, Michael Struwe always felt at home at ETH and he did a lot for the department, but also served in various committees all over ETH. In particular, he was chairman of the department in the years 2002 to 2004 and he is a director of the Zurich Graduate School in Mathematics that is jointly operated by the maths department of ETH and the University of Zurich. We are proud of the ZGSM and Michael Struwe was one of the important people to make this work. Thank you also for this, Michael.

Now, I don’t want to speak too long. But allow me, at the very end, to say a few very personal words about Michael. We didn’t interact so much, but a little bit. In the committees where both of us were present, in the department conferences and so on, I observed that Michael is super sharp, but also he is super concise. He always leaves room for others to speak up. What I find particularly unique is the tone in which he conveys his messages. They are always clear, but it’s so nicely phrased it’s pleasant and in a completely non-aggressive tone. For this, I also admire you, Michael. This is the truth and I believe that I learned from you quite a bit of what ETH really stands for. Which is the respect for scientific quality of your colleagues. This is the key basis for developing a broad and excellent department.

You, Michael, have been a pillar of this department and can be proud of the many achievements in every respect. Not everybody can say this when she or he retires, but Michael can. Thank you personally for the honour that I could help you as a colleague for about twelve years. And now, Michael, the stage is yours.