Carola Eschenbach

Carola Eschenbach serves as an Academic Councillor at the University of Hamburg within the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences. Her work bridges formal logic, linguistics, and cognitive science through rigorous theoretical frameworks.

Her research centers on formal ontology—including mereology (part-whole relations, overlap, disjointness, and fusion) and mereotopology (topological structures grounded in mereology)—to model holism and integrity in conceptual systems. She investigates natural language semantics with emphasis on lexical compositionality and the syntax-semantics interface of quantification (e.g., "three liters of wine" vs. "three heads of lettuce"). Spatial reasoning constitutes another pillar, covering reference systems, trajectory representation, and movement formalization. Additional domains include discourse/event structures and grouping processes in linguistic cognition.

Dr. Eschenbach has led decades of DFG-funded research, including CINACS (2006-2015) on multimodal comprehension, Language Production Priority Programme (1997-2003), ARK spatial axiomatics (1996-2002), Cognitive Science Graduate School (1990-2000), and GAP grouping processes (1987-1993). While student mentorship isn't explicitly documented, her project leadership implies extensive team supervision. Her office resides at Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, Hamburg.