ICIAM is sad to announce the death of Prof. Dr. Rolf Jeltsch its 7th president (2007-2011) on June 28, 2024 at the age of 78. Rolf Jeltsch retired from ETH Zurich in 2011 where he had been full professor of mathematics since 1989, head of the Math Department and also where he completed his doctorate in mathematics in 1972. A postdoctoral fellowship in Canada was followed by positions as an assistant professor in the USA (University of California Los Angeles and University of Kentucky) before moving to the Ruhr University Bochum in 1976 as a lecturer and later as a scientific advisor and professor. After research stays in Stanford and Helsinki, RWTH Aachen appointed him full professor in 1979 and director of the Institute for Geometry and Practical Mathematics.
Rolf Jeltsch's research area was numerical analysis (from theoretical investigations to engineering applications), parallel computing and computational sciences. Some special fields of interest were numerics of hyperbolic conservation laws with applications to the Euler equations of gas dynamics, compressible Navier-Stokes including Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and chemistry, shallow water equations, magnetohydrodynamical equations (MHD). His research included large scale computational and engineering problems such as simulation of accelerator beams, climate modeling, optimizing three dimensional turbine blades, modeling circuit breakers, two and three phase flow in porous media.
Rolf Jeltsch was nationally and internationally recognized and was accordingly a member of many different boards and mathematics committees that benefited from his tireless commitment and enthusiasm. He was president of the Leonard Euler Center, the Swiss pilot center of the European Community on Flow Turbulence and Combustion, the European Mathematical Society, the Swiss Mathematical Society and the International Council on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, as well as president (2005-2007) and vice president (2008-2010) of the Society for Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM). He chaired the Scientific Council of the Stefan Banach Center in Warsaw, was director of the ICIAM Congress in Zurich, and worked as a consultant for various research institutes in Europe.
Rolf is survived by his wife Marianne Grauer and his children: Veronika, Rita, Urs and Claudia.
(From an ETH Obituary)
(Photograph of Rolf Jeltsch courtesy of the European Mathematical Society)