Martin Grötschel (born 10 September 1948) is a German mathematician known for his research on

combinatorial optimization Combinatorial optimization is a subfield of mathematical optimization that consists of finding an optimal object from a finite set of objects, where the set of feasible solutions is discrete or can be reduced to a discrete set. Typical combina ...

polyhedral combinatorics Polyhedral combinatorics is a branch of mathematics, within combinatorics and discrete geometry, that studies the problems of counting and describing the faces of convex polyhedra and higher-dimensional convex polytopes. Research in polyhedral co ...

, and

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

. From 1991 to 2012 he was Vice President of the

Zuse Institute Berlin The Zuse Institute Berlin (abbreviated ZIB, or ''Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin'') is a research institute for applied mathematics and computer science on the campus of Freie Universität Berlin in Dahlem, Berlin, Germany ...

(ZIB) and served from 2012 to 2015 as ZIB's President. From 2015 to 2020 he was President of the

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (), abbreviated BBAW, is the official academic society for the natural sciences and humanities for the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg. Housed in three locations in and around Ber ...

(BBAW).

Biography

Grötschel was born in

Schwelm Schwelm () is a town in the district of Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis in the administrative region of Arnsberg within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany. Geography Schwelm is situated in the southeast of the "''Ruhrgebiet''", the Ruhr d ...

, Germany, and earned a diploma in mathematics with a minor in economics in 1973 from the

University of Bochum The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began in ...

. He completed a doctorate in 1977 at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

under the supervision of

Bernhard Korte Bernhard H. Korte (3 November 1938 – 26 April 2025) was a German computer scientist, a professor at the University of Bonn and an expert in combinatorial optimization. Biography Korte earned his doctorate ( Doctor rerum naturalium) from the U ...

, and obtained his

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 ...

at Bonn in the field of

in 1981. One year later he was appointed full professor of applied mathematics at the

University of Augsburg The University of Augsburg () is a university located in the Universitätsviertel section of Augsburg, Germany. It was founded in 1970 and is organized in 8 Faculties. The University of Augsburg is a relatively young campus university with a ...

. From 1991 until his retirement at the end of September 2015, he was, while also engaged at ZIB, full professor for information technology at

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

. Martin Grötschel was a member of the Executive Committee of the

German Mathematical Society The German Mathematical Society (, DMV) is the main professional society of German mathematicians and represents German mathematics within the European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the International Mathematical Union (IMU). It was founded in ...

(Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (DMV)) from 1989 to 1996 and from 1993 to 1994 its President. From 1999 to 2014 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the

International Mathematical Union The International Mathematical Union (IMU) is an international organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of mathematics across the world. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC) and supports the International ...

(IMU) and from 2007 to 2014 IMU's General Secretary. Since 2011 he has been a member of the Executive Board of the

Einstein Foundation Berlin The Einstein Foundation Berlin is a foundation based in Berlin, Germany "that aims to promote science and research of top international caliber in Berlin and to establish the city as a centre of scientific excellence." It does this through various ...

and was from 2011 to 2015 its Chair. He was co-founder and longstanding Chair of the DFG Research Cente
Matheon
"Mathematics for key technologies". Martin Grötschel has been married since 1976 to his wife Iris Grötschel and has three daughters.

Work

Martin Grötschel is one of the most internationally renowned experts in the field of

. Martin Grötschel's main mathematical research fields are

graph theory In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of ''graph (discrete mathematics), graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of ''Vertex (graph ...

, linear and mixed-integer optimization and

. Already in his doctoral thesis, Grötschel achieved significant progress in the development of solution methods of the

Traveling Salesman Problem In the theory of computational complexity, the travelling salesman problem (TSP) asks the following question: "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exac ...

, in particular, he contributed significantly to understanding the

cutting-plane method In mathematical optimization, the cutting-plane method is any of a variety of optimization methods that iteratively refine a feasible set or objective function by means of linear inequalities, termed ''cuts''. Such procedures are commonly used ...

. His publications together with L. Lovász and A. Schrijver on the

ellipsoid method In mathematical optimization, the ellipsoid method is an iterative method for convex optimization, minimizing convex functions over convex sets. The ellipsoid method generates a sequence of ellipsoids whose volume uniformly decreases at every ste ...

and its application in the combinatorial and convex optimization gained worldwide recognition. In recent years Martin Grötschel has mainly dealt (besides addressing "classical" mathematical problems) with mathematical modelling and solving real-world problems in economy and industry. The application areas he has worked in include optimization of production planning and control, public transport and energy systems, logistics and telecommunication. Since the early 1990s Grötschel has been working intensively in the fields of electronic information and communication, library systems,

Open Access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

and Open Science and thereto participated in numerous national and international bodies and initiatives. The promotion of digital humanities is one of the main goals of Grötschel's BBAW presidency.

Awards and honors

Grötschel was one of the winners of the

Fulkerson Prize The Fulkerson Prize for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics is sponsored jointly by the Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented at e ...

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 1982 for his work with

László Lovász László Lovász (; born March 9, 1948) is a Hungarian mathematician and professor emeritus at Eötvös Loránd University, best known for his work in combinatorics, for which he was awarded the 2021 Abel Prize jointly with Avi Wigderson. He ...

and Alexander Schrijver on applications of the

. In 2006 the same trio won the

John von Neumann Theory Prize The John von Neumann Theory Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is awarded annually to an individual (or sometimes a group) who has made fundamental and sustained contributions to theory in opera ...

of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

. 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 ...

and

Mathematical Optimization Society The Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS), known as the Mathematical Programming Society (MPS) until 2010,George B. Dantzig Prize in 1991, and the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

gave him the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 1995. In 2004 he was awarded the EURO Gold Medal, the highest distinction within

Operations Research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

in Europe. He was an invited speaker at the 2006

International Congress of Mathematicians The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) is the largest conference for the topic of mathematics. It meets once every four years, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU). The Fields Medals, the IMU Abacus Medal (known before ...

. Grötschel received honorary doctorates from the

University of Karlsruhe 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 ...

in 2006, from the Vietnamese Academy of Sciences and Technology (VAST) in 2007, from the Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg in 2008 and from the

in 2011. Since 2011 he has been Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

. Grötschel is member of seven national and international scientific academies: In 1995 he was a member the

, in 1999 he became Foreign Member of the US

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

(NAE) for "contributions to combinatorial optimization and its applications", since 2003 he has been a member of the Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften ( acatech), since 2005 of the

German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...

, since 2015 of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

(CAS) as Foreign Member, since 2016 of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in the developing countries as Fellow, and in 2017 he was elected a member of the Academy of Europe

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, a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

was published in his honor.

Selected publications

* * *

References

External links

Grötschel's homepage
at Zuse Institute Berlin {{DEFAULTSORT:Grotschel, Martin Living people 1948 births 20th-century German mathematicians Ruhr University Bochum alumni University of Bonn alumni Academic staff of the University of Augsburg Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Foreign associates of the National Academy of Engineering Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners John von Neumann Theory Prize winners 21st-century German mathematicians Presidents of the German Mathematical Society