Portrait: Gerd Grubb
On November 2, 2012 there was the possibility of experiencing Professor Gerd Grubb at her retirement lecture.
After 46 years of employment at Department of Mathematical Sciences, Copenhagen University, Professor, dr.phil. et h.c. Gerd Grubb retires from her position. However, it will still be possible to find her at the Department, where she continues to enrich colleagues and students with her work on partial differential equations and their applications to, e.g. mathematical physics, hydrodynamics, geometric analysis, and spectral theory.
Outside mathematical circles partial differential equations are primarily known by physicists, who among other things use these for describing flow of heat and of water, or vibrations in building constructions. The main focus of Gerd Grubb has been the fundamental research behind the problems, i.e. the underlying theoretical structures and principles.
In 1975 Gerd Grubb defended her doctoral thesis called “Semiboundedness and other properties of normal boundary value problems for partial differential operators” and became the first woman with a Danish doctorate in mathematics. By 1994 she was the only female professor out of 52 in total at Faculty of Natural Sciences.
The industriousness of Gerd Grubb is easily seen from her list of publications, which contains nearly 100 titles – an impressive number in this highly theoretical research area. She has produced teaching material as well as two research monographs. Besides her research she has put a lot of effort into various administrative tasks such as being director of the board of studies in Mathematics and later of the Faculty board of PhD studies; she has also participated in national and international committees.
Former students describe Gerd Grubb as a careful, interested, and attentive academic advisor. This has been remarkable both at the master's level and the PhD level, where a large number of students have felt her care for the outcome of their work. The thoroughness that describes her entire mathematical career: “No detail will pass unnoticed, and no epsilon is too small to be warded of”, says Anders Gaarde smilingly about Gerd Grubb who was the academic advisor of his master’s thesis as well as his PhD thesis.
The retirement lecture is entitled “Encounters with Spectral Theory” and will be an epic inspired lecture on the influence of spectral theory on the research and internationalization of Gerd Grubb.
The lecture will be followed by a reception in the lunchroom on the 4th floor in the E-building.